Corner cabinets - design/installation?

[BrianStark]

Need some help for corner cabinet design/installation tips...

I've seen plenty of information on the forums regarding base and upper cabinet construction, but have come across not so much information about corner cabinet construction.

Many of the posts on the forums here describe a typical upper cabinet as having a 1/4" plywood back, set inside a 1/4" x 1 1/8" rabbeted carcass with a 3/4" french cleat to hang the cabinet onto the wall, along with 3/4" dadoes to hold the top and bottoms of the carcass, etc....

However, with a corner cabinet, there are now two backs (left-side and right-side). What I'm struggling with in my mind, is how corner cabinet should should be constructed -- it seems like the two backs should both be 3/4" plywood with dadoes to hold the tops and bottoms as the corner piece is itself an awkward shape. But, there is a need to mount the cabinet, so then, is one of the backs a 1/4" panel with a french cleat behind it? Do I only attach one back side of the cabinet to the wall, or with a corner cabinet, should I be attaching both sides? (obvious concerns about whether or not the corner is really 90 degrees or not also are popping into my head...).

For the application I am thinking of, there will be "typical" upper cabinets installed on either side of the corner cabinet.

Thanks in advance for thoughts on this...

Brian

[RayintheUK]

Do you mean something similar to this?





You'll notice that I also had to allow for a consumer unit that could not be re-sited. The cabinet is one unit, hung on double French cleats on both walls. Further details of the whole kitchen build are here if you get the time.

The "out-of-square" corner is nowhere near as much of a problem as you might imagine. Very few corners are that far out that they cause a major problem. Corners of <90° are less of a problem than those >90° - but with the former, shimming will overcome, the latter may need more careful cutting of the L-shaped top and bottom sections - make a template.

Hope that helps?

Ray

[cabinetman]

Corner cabinets pose interesting challenges. Basically, there are several examples:

It could be the last cabinet (or opening) of a straight run of wall cabinets that end in a corner.

It could be the cabinet occupying the corner with cabinets on either side of the 90º corner.

A corner cabinet as posted by Ray allows for a door to be hinged to a door to open both sides of the opening.

These types of cabinets and door layouts can be a single cabinet, or the last one on a run of cabinets.

It could be a corner cabinet with a face @ 45º, with the door being on the same frontal plane with the door or doors of the party cabinet(s) that are on a straight run on the wall. This cabinet has a 90º back made up of two panels. The sides are 90º to the back, like a straight wall cabinet. The front is @45º to the sides.

With this arrangement, the two backs that lead into the 90º corner could be 3/4" material, which can be joined with a simple rabbet and mechanical fasteners. One back could be 3/4" and the other could be 1/4". Or, both backs could be 1/4" and joined by a vertical post with a rabbet for each back. In any case a hangrail can be configured for installation. A lone corner cabinet can be installed to just one wall if the wall (studs) provide a mounting point. Or, the cabinet could be installed to one wall or any party cabinets.

With a FF match up, or a front edge match up for frameless cabinets, the cabinet may be installed to a party cabinet before that cabinet is installed to the wall. If the situation presents no point of wall attachment, and that is needed, a toggle bolt mount might be an alternative.

To account for the corner to be more or less than 90º, the bottom of the cabinet can run past the backs to allow for scribe, and likewise for the ends. With the scribe available, the actual 90º corner for the backs can be recessed into the cabinets to allow for a bad wall corner.

I prefer not to use the french cleat method to install corner cabinets as they can take some shifting around to get it lined up with a party cabinet or to meet a wall.
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[BrianStark]

The "out-of-square" corner is nowhere near as much of a problem as you might imagine. Very few corners are that far out that they cause a major problem. Corners of <90° are less of a problem than those >90° - but with the former, shimming will overcome, the latter may need more careful cutting of the L-shaped top and bottom sections - make a template.

Hope that helps?

Yes! I had been looking at corner cabinets along the lines of what is shown here: http://www.garagestoragecabinets.com...orner-cabinets and thought there might be a better way. I like the style of cabinet door that you have in your cabinet -- that seems to make sense for the tighter spaces I am dealing with in my garage where I want to build cabinets that maximize space (one wall has only 43" long before it hits the garage closet for the water heater & furnace), while the adjacent wall is 12').

Glad to hear the overall squareness of the two walls is not likely to be as big of a concern as I perceived it might be.

Brian

[BrianStark]

It could be a corner cabinet with a face @ 45º, with the door being on the same frontal plane with the door or doors of the party cabinet(s) that are on a straight run on the wall. This cabinet has a 90º back made up of two panels. The sides are 90º to the back, like a straight wall cabinet. The front is @45º to the sides.

This is the type of cabinet that I had started to envision -- see link in previous response to Ray for an example. In terms of planning the size of the cabinet, the thing that struck me was the fact that you need to ensure that the 45º face is sufficiently wide enough to allow reasonable access to the cabinet. That means that the two back sides need to be of sufficient length. I actually started to work on some formulas to calculate these dimensions in an Excel spreadsheet. Another thing I realized was considering that depth of each of the sides is another factor, especially if you think about using a corner cabinet to tie together cabinets on two walls of different depths (I was thinking of 12" deep cabinets on one short wall, and possibly 16" deep cabinets on the adjacent wall. All of this seemed to be leading me down the path to corner cabinet whose overall dimensions were really larger than what I wanted for the space that I have.

After seeing Ray's corner cabinet though, I'm starting to think that type of cabinet might be a better style for me -- I'll still have some of the issues I pointed out above to determine overall size, but getting rid of the 45º face goes a long way in shortening up the backs of the cabinet and gives me a more practical corner cabinet.

I prefer not to use the french cleat method to install corner cabinets as they can take some shifting around to get it lined up with a party cabinet or to meet a wall.
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Interesting... I'll definitely check the two walls to see how square they are. I think my preference is toward a french cleat, but as you say, if there is some extra shifting needed to get things lined up, a french cleat may be a bit awkward to work with.

thanks for the advice!

Brian