Step by Step Cabinet Makeover / Hiding Undercabinet Lighting Illustration

Earlier I said I would give an indepth explanation on how we are going about transforming our plain (*yawn*) kitchen cabinets into ones with lots of cottage / farmhouse charm (plus how exactly how we are hiding the undercabinet lighting!). I know nothing about the electrical end of things - that's hubs area of expertise, but I can tell you about the rest...

Here's a rudimentary illustration that I put together to help you understand exactly what we are doing. I'm sure there are many ways to do this, but this is what we came up with. I've explained the illustration below...By the way, we got all of our trim pieces at Home Depot.



Important: If you want to add beadboard facing to the sides of your cabinet, make sure you do this first.

Step #1: Drill a small hole in the wall in the recessed area underneath the cabinets. These holes will accommodate the wiring, which leads to one switch (and can be put on a dimmer!)

Step #2: Measure and cut a thin, wood panel that is the same dimension as the bottom of the cabinet. In the center of the panel, cut a hole that will accommodate a recessed puck / disk light. Don't make this hole too large!

Step #3: Pull the wiring through the hole in the panel and then nail the panel to the bottom of the cabinet.

Step #4: At this point, you can attach your lights and insert them into the hole you cut in Step #2, but we decided to wait and do this after our cabinets were trimmed out and painted.

Step #5: Add stop moulding under the panel at the edges.

Step #6: Add decorative trim to the face of the cabinet right above the stop moulding to cover the panel.

Step #7: Add crown moulding to the top of the cabinet.

Step #8: Add decorative moulding below the crown moulding if desired.

Prime, sand, caulk, paint and enjoy! (In the future, I'll write another entry about the paint technique we're using...) If any of this doesn't make sense, please let me know and I'll be happy to answer your questions:)