Unfortunately, this cabinet base already had a stain finish applied with some sort of sealer on top of that. This meant sanding off most of that so that the paint I was going to apply (to match the wall cabinets already in the room) would adhere nicely. We returned home that afternoon and I commenced to sanding everything...
With all the surface areas sanded clean, I decided to get the 1st coat of paint applied that same evening so it would have time to dry and a 2nd coat be painted the next day...
After a second coat, and another day of drying, we moved it into the utility room to size things up. Fortunately for me, the corner where we were installing this unit was very square - and the floor was very level as well. The floor molding had a tricky design to it, but I was able to copy those curves to a template and shape the slat that would cover this side crack so it all fit very snugly.
Here is the unit in place, screwed into the studs in three places at the back. First attempt at this I tried to just put the cabinet base against the back floor molding. Unfortunately, since I was just buying a stock/prebuilt cabinet top to go on this base, the dimensions were all precise to a certain standard, so leaving it like that would have meant a 3/8" crack along the back where the cabinet top would meet the back wall. So, I had to pull the unit back off and cut out the baseboard at the back so that the unit could be flush against the sheetrock wall.
Here's a close up of the baseboard molding cutout. A slat was cut and applied along this back edge as well, shaped at the bottom to fit the contour of the baseboard. That covered up the "rough" cut of the baseboard, and with a bead of caulk applied it all looked very nice.
By far, the toughest part of this whole job was trimming the cabinet top to the proper width. The stock tops came in various widths, with 4' being the shortest. The piece is much too big to try and cut on my table saw, so I had to resort to my handheld power saw. In order to make a smooth cut of the laminate, this required cutting from the bottom side. These counter tops are made of a dense particle board, with the laminate surface applied. Using a very fine toothed blade, it was extremely difficult getting a straight cut through all that very hard glue used to form the particle board. After numerous passes, I finally was able to get a pretty straight cut on that end resulting in a top with the proper width...
With the right hand side trimmed, we then applied a piece of laminate to the "raw" edge of the counter top. This laminate piece was pre-made to fit the contour of the counter top. It was applied simply by laying it in place and then applying a hot clothes iron all along it to activate a glue which was already on the back side of the laminate piece. We were a little unsure if this would really work or not, but Nancy worked the iron as I held the piece in place and we then let it cool off. The bond took, and it seems the laminate strip is holding fast. The piece they provide is actually a little bigger than the top itself, so a fine wood rasp was used to stroke upward in the position you see below to remove the excess. When all is said and done, the piece of laminate ironed onto the end mates up nicely with the laminate which was already on the top. (I think I could have bought a special bit to go in my router that would have made this step much quicker and easier, but I didn't think to pursue it at the time...).
And so here is the final product installed. The slats on the front left and back right are in place, and a bead of caulk finished off the remaining little cracks against the walls and the baseboard molding. Not only do we now have a nice counter top area for folding clothes as they come out of the dryer, we also have two additional drawers and storage space behind the two doors you see where we can put things!
As usual, difficulties were overcome along the way - but it turned out very nice and it will add function to the utility room...
Tom
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