# chestnut cabinets with corian countertop



## larrynj (Jan 27, 2012)

i built these cabinets and countertop 20+ years ago. the kitchen had a pantry and china cabinet built in when the house was built in 1902, but had no other cabinets or countertop. i needed to make some cabinets that would appear to be original to the house matching the built-ins already there. 

i had found 5 or 6 chestnut 5 panel doors under the porch that were probably "extra" material from when the house was built. after builing the boxes out of plywood, i was able to trim 2" from the outside edges of the doors to use as a face frame. by cutting the 4" door rails at each panel, i was able to get 5 cabinet doors from each. these were hinged flush with the face frames. i left the doorknob hole on the bottom of the solid outside face of the "l" as sort of an inside joke. i'll point this out to people who are knowledgable in construction only and always get a laugh.

i borrowed the drawers from another floor to ceiling built in from the butlers' pantry ( now my wet bar), and replaced the drawers with a couple of the newly cut cabinet doors.


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## larrynj (Jan 27, 2012)

here are some pics of the original builtins that i was trying to match up with in the kitchen - and i was able to locate nearly exact duplicates of the door latches and drawer pulls from a reproduction hardware place.


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## larrynj (Jan 27, 2012)

when i made these cabinets about 1987 corian was the only solid surface material available on the market, and a new salesman sold me a couple sheets in error, not knowing they were only to be sold to corian certified installers. the supply company tried to back out of the sale, but i insisted they deliver the stuff. 

i made the tops with a 1/2" chestnut strip in a sandwich, appears to be inlaid, built jigs to glue and clamp up the backsplashes, shelves, and window sills. i was too stupid or over-confident to know the difficulty involved, but it came out great, and i've never seen anything like it.


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## Chaincarver Steve (Jul 30, 2011)

You did a great job. 20+ years and still in use: not bad at all.



larrynj said:


> i was too stupid or over-confident to know the difficulty involved, but it came out great, and i've never seen anything like it.



You know, some of the best things I've done in life were only done because I was "too stupid and over-confident to know the difficulty involved." One of the members here has in their signature a quote to that same effect. It reads something like this. To paraphrase: "Those who say it's impossible shouldn't disturb those who are already doing it."


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

Very nice looking job.


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## jessrj (Mar 30, 2012)

Chaincarver Steve said:


> You did a great job. 20+ years and still in use: not bad at all.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I agree. Its amazing what you can do when you have no choice but to figure it out.


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