# Kitchen cabinet challenge



## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

We had our kitchen remodeled and couple of years ago and are pleased with it except for one annoying thing. The under-cabinet lights are not hidden from view at all. There is no recess under the cabinets. The bottoms are flush with the lower edge of the face frames.

So, being a newbie woodworker I seek your guidance. How can I cut, stain, finish and attache about 1.5 - 2 inches of lower trim all around all cabinets in order to shield the lights from view?

The cabinets are maple. The underside where the trim would be attached is a laminate that feels like Formica.

Here are some pics.

























I think I can source and cut the right kind of wood. I might even whip out the router to put a decorative flare on it. (Or not.)

The things that concern me:
- How thick front-to-back should the trim be?
- How to attach the wood trim to the laminate? Gorilla glue? Screws? Something else?
- How to abut the trim pieces? Some will meet at 90 degrees. Some will meet at about 45 degrees.
- How to match the color? I've seen some YouTube vids and read up on this, but if you have your favorite link or method please share.
- How to match the finish. The factor finish is somewhere between low gloss and eggshell.

Thanks in advance.


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Mark,
check out this link from Kraftmaid. It shows their light rail molding.
http://www.kraftmaid.com/products/decorative-enhancements/moldings-accents/ilr_md06/

Mike Hawkins


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

firehawkmph said:


> Mark,
> check out this link from Kraftmaid. It shows their light rail molding.
> http://www.kraftmaid.com/products/decorative-enhancements/moldings-accents/ilr_md06/
> 
> Mike Hawkins


That's already a big help. You gave me the correct terminology - light rail molding. And there are "only" 48 KraftMaid retailers within 25 miles of my ZIP code. :thumbup1: 

I might enjoy making them, though. However, I'm sure my wife would just enjoy having them. In her lifetime.


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## Lola Ranch (Mar 22, 2010)

you could do something like this









just screw it to the bottom of the cabinets

Bret


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## timmybgood (Jan 11, 2011)

It looks like they put a laminate over the recessed bottoms of the cabinets so they would have a finished appearance from underneath. If you are not concerned with that and only with hiding the lights, you could take off the laminate and put in some slim puck lights which would be mostly hidden.


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

timmybgood said:


> It looks like they put a laminate over the recessed bottoms of the cabinets so they would have a finished appearance from underneath. If you are not concerned with that and only with hiding the lights, you could take off the laminate and put in some slim puck lights which would be mostly hidden.


Thanks good timmy, but there are no recessed bottoms. The laminate is on the bottom side of the lowest shelf. Learning that the terminology for my solution is "light rail molding" has been a great help. Searching the interwebs shows that there are off the shelf options, so to speak. So I think I will be buying or making light rail molding.


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## blackestate (Feb 28, 2011)

use a contrasting wood color would look nice as well.


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

blackestate said:


> use a contrasting wood color would look nice as well.


Someone suggested black. Wife hates the idea. I need my wife, so black I out. Anyone have contrasting color ideas?


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## wsommariva (Jan 3, 2010)

Bright kitchen. Maybe remove those under cabinet lights.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

There are small can lights that finish flush with the underside of the cabinet. You need no railing if you don't want. 









 







.


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## 1avrgjoe (Jan 16, 2013)

I have used the Kreg pocket hole jig for stuff like this in the past. I just got the Kreg Micro PHJ for some cabinets I'm building and it works really well. You would pre drill the pocket holes on the back of the finished trim (Obviously), then you would need to clamp the trim in place and screw it home. The screws for the micro are 3/4" so they won't poke through your new cabinets. No need for plugs, and you can always remove it. Face Frame biscuits and glue could work but thats more permanent.


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## LearnByDoing (Jan 18, 2012)

Just my two cents but I would go to the manufacturer of the cabinet and purchase the light rail. I get the desire to build it yourself but even they will have difficulty matching that finish exactly. It varies from run to run. But they'll get the closest. And using a contrasting color would look silly. Only my opinion. But I would get the matching light rail, and attach it with pocket screws or recessed trim screws and move on to making something more fun.


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

LearnByDoing said:


> Just my two cents but I would go to the manufacturer of the cabinet and purchase the light rail. I get the desire to build it yourself but even they will have difficulty matching that finish exactly. It varies from run to run. But they'll get the closest. And using a contrasting color would look silly. Only my opinion. But I would get the matching light rail, and attach it with pocket screws or recessed trim screws and move on to making something more fun.


I completely agree with this approach. However, soon after the kitchen was finished I had another minor issue with the cabinets. Something to do with hardware or something. I don't exactly remember. I contacted the manufacturer and they said they don't deal directly with the public in a retail manner. They said their dealer in my area was.....my contractor. I cannot interface with the contractor because if I see him again I will have to kill him. I don't want to go into details other than to cite the famous quote, "Some folks just need killing."

I will try to investigate this route again. It has been a couple of years.


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

I dug up the paperwork. Blackstone Cabinetry of North Carolina made the cabinets. They are out of business. The interwebs indicate that they sold their manufacturing assets to RiverRun Cabinetry of Virginia, and the latter is using those assets to boost their commercial and hospitality (aka hotel) business. :sad:


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## LearnByDoing (Jan 18, 2012)

Well, that stinks. I guess the next think I would do is either mill something I like from the same type of wood or buy it from another cabinet shop unfinished. Then you could screw around trying to match the finish yourself, or take it and one of the doors to a furniture refinisher and see what they could do.


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

LearnByDoing said:


> Well, that stinks. I guess the next think I would do is either mill something I like from the same type of wood or buy it from another cabinet shop unfinished. Then you could screw around trying to match the finish yourself, or take it and one of the doors to a furniture refinisher and see what they could do.


A furniture refinished? I didn't even know such beings existed! That's a great idea. Thanks.


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## SteveEl (Sep 7, 2010)

This is probably obvious, but just in case.... the moulding will change the clearance between counter and cabinet, which may effect the way you use the space when coooking. An example.... at our place, we use the KitchenAide mixer all the time, and losing any height at the face of the cabinets via extra moulding would make it a lot less convenient.


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## Gone Wood'n (Feb 4, 2013)

can't you just get some filler strips either made about 1.5 inches long or how ever you feel it will take to get them hidden under there from the same manufacturer that made your cabinets OR maybe go as far as to paint the lights the color of the underside to slightly blend into the bottoms?


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

Steve, thanks. There is plenty of clearance.

Gone Wood'n, the manufacturer is out of business. But that would be a good idea.

I've been busy an am just getting back to this. Wife won't let me forget it.


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## jessrj (Mar 30, 2012)

Lola Ranch said:


> you could do something like this
> 
> View attachment 58926
> 
> ...


Exactly what I thought. I do this fairly often and with the cabinet style you have it would look good. Just make sure the screws aren't to long and put a little clear caulk on the edge for glue. The bottom deck is probably only 3/4 so there won't be much bite. Thats what the caulk is for.


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## gowings (Jun 17, 2013)

Ive watched these cabinet installers install the rails. They build the frames totally on the workbench and attach them with angle brackets.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Set the frame back from the front ...*

Setting the frame back a little will eliminate the need for an exact match, a shadow will "hide" a color deviation. It will look intended also, rather than attempting to be flush and not perfect. Keep the frame as narrow as possible because you're just hiding the fixtures, and the only way to see them would be to lean over and look upward. A normal person standing will not see them. 
Nice looking cabinets BTW!


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

What a great board this is. People still caring about my little problem.

I think it is solved. I decided to make my own rails. First I had to do a lot of experimentation with color and finish. What worked is cherry wood, stained with Minwax Red Mahogany 225, with a single coat of satin finish Arm-R-Seal oil and urethane topcoat.

The rails are 1.5 inches high and 3/4 inch thick. I laid many routed patterns on some samples so my wife could pick the one she thought matched the cabinets best. The best part of that exercise was that she bought me a Bench Dog Pro-Top router table to get the job done. Yes, I won the wife lottery 31 yrs ago.

I am using 6 x 1 7/8" drywall screws, countersunk, to attach to the underside of the cabinets. The cabinet bottoms are particle board covered with a Formica-like laminate mostly. In some places the bottoms are instead solid wood, but most surfaces are laminate.

I am backing up the screws with contact cement where there is laminate, and wood glue where the shelf bottom is wood. I'm very pleased with how strong this arrangement is feeling. I think it will help to prevent particle board sagging over the years, a bonus I had not thought about.

Thanks, everyone .


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## chopnhack (Dec 16, 2007)

Pics?


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

chopnhack said:


> Pics?


I was into photography in the 1970s, when it was actually harder. Now that it's easy I've gotten...what is the word for it? Oh, yeah. LAZY. I'll have to clean the kitchen, find the camera, take the pics, boot up the ole Windoze laptop, build a few projects while waiting for the laptop to boot up, connect the camera to the laptop(now where did I put that cable?), take six guesses as to what my Photobucket password is, exceed the limit on login attempts, request a new password, upload the pics, then relearn how to post pics on this board.

But I owe it to you guys for being so helpful.


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

Here are a couple of pics that roughly match two pics in the original post. It doesn't look dramatic. It just looks "normal" to us.


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## SebringDon (Jan 2, 2013)

Those turned out great! Don't you just love it when a plan comes together.


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

SebringDon said:


> Those turned out great! Don't you just love it when a plan comes together.


I very much love it. Making and installing them myself was so much more rewarding than sourcing pre-made light rails and using those. They would have been made of different wood and would have been very hard to color-match. I also would have had no control over the profile. You can barely see it in the pics, but there is a small cove cut on the bottom edge of the rails - my wife's choice for profile.

Best of all, I got a drill press and set of counter-sink drill bits out of the project. :thumbsup:


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## jharris2 (Jul 9, 2012)

Great job Mark!

UC lights are hidden and the color match is dead on.

So you drilled and counter sunk the bottom of the new rails?


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

jharris2 said:


> Great job Mark!
> 
> UC lights are hidden and the color match is dead on.
> 
> So you drilled and counter sunk the bottom of the new rails?


Yes. See my June 22 post, above, for details. Re-reading that post reminded me that I got a really nice router table out of the deal, too!


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## jharris2 (Jul 9, 2012)

I missed that Mark.

Drilling and countersinking the screws at the bottom of the rails would be just as effective but less time consuming than pocket screws.

Good call.


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## chopnhack (Dec 16, 2007)

Came out really nice Mark! The color is really spot on considering it looks to be a different wood and the factory finish is always so difficult to replicate. Great work :thumbsup:


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