Filling Cabinet Gaps Around The Stove

Some aspects of this kitchen remodel are certainly less exciting than others – especially when compared to having simply opened the wall up. But alas, these things must be done. Including a few that we hoped to accomplish before the countertop guy came to template for our new counters (that is something we want done accurately, after all).

First on our list of little things was filling the gaps next to our stove.

The base cabinet that we took out was 36″ wide, but the stove is only about 30″ leaving a little under 3″ of nothingness on either side. Since you cannot squeeze much function into two and 3/4ths inches (nearly every pull-out drawer was 3″ or more), we chose simply to put in filler pieces of wood. Oh and for anyone wondering why we did not scoot the stove to one side and add a wider pull out drawer, if we did not leave the stove centered the hood would be off-center, which would mean widening the ceiling hole (= drama). Plus none of the thin slide out drawers had doors that looked like our existing ones anyway, so it was simply not worth the money/trouble. And although we thought about some sort of ornate leg or braided detail, we ultimately chose that we hoped other things like the wall of penny tile backsplash to be the star (along with items on our floating shelves), so two thin and basic filler pieces of wood were our final pick.

I grabbed a few pine “project boards” at Lowe’s, cut them to size, and drilled some pilot holes with my Kreg jig before screwing them carefully into place.

Obviously we needed the fillers at the front to visually fill the gap, but we also chose to put one at the back in case the counter guy needed it for support:

In total, each side had three separate filler pieces. We likely could’ve gotten away with two, but it is not like the boards were breaking the bank (I spent about $11 total on this whole project – which is at least $100 cheaper than some sort of pull out dealie).

Here are both sides done (ready for the stove to slide back into place):

Not bad, eh? Once the counters are on and the cabinets are primed and painted no one will even notice them. Especially since many of the other base cabinets in our kitchen already have fillers in the 2.5″ range.

Then we stepped a little closer and put on our Picky Pants and we saw that there was still a noticeable gap. Guess we have gotta go buy a bigger stove…

Kidding. Obviously I simply needed to add one more sliver of filler wood. The gap was simply over 1/4 of an inch, and I knew we could do better. So I headed back out to Lowe’s a grabbed a couple of these.

It is a 3/8″ thick project board that fit perfectly into my slightly-too-big gap, thank goodness (though they brought in $4 to my total budget, now breaking the bank at $15). So I nailed those two suckers in place, being especially sensitive to keeping them flush with my other filler piece along the front.

Here is what they looked like on both sides. I did not bother putting them any further than the first two panels since they were strictly aesthetic.

Then we simply slid the stove back in. MUCH better. I know it is hard to tell in the pic below, but trust us that it is simply about as snug as we’d ever want it (any closer it would be hard to get the stove in and out). Oh and once we demo the tile from behind the stove it’ll be able to push back against the wall a bit more for a more flush look. And once we add the toe kick across the front of all the cabinets the bottom will be seamless too.

So with that done…

… our next little task was over on the peninsula.

Since we do not want the guy templating the counters to think we want an angled corner or anything, we hoped to attach a flat panel on the back of the whole peninsula. It is something we’d have to do eventually, so why not tackle it while we wait for counters? You can see in the photo above that I had already attached a little corner piece to anchor the panel against the half wall. Here it is a little closer:

It is in short simply two scrap pieces of wood that I screwed together at a 90-degree angle using my jig. Then I screwed it into the wall so that the flat edge would be flush with the back of the cabinets. Then I was ready to attach my plywood panel.

I in fact picked up this piece of wood back when I got the plywood for our refrigerator built-in so I could transport it in my rented Lowe’s truck (how’s that for thinking ahead!). It is simply a thin piece of “utility plywood” that the Lowe’s guy recommended. It was a whopping $9. They had cut it to size for me in the wood cutting area, but because we had later switched from a 21″ end cabinet to an 18″ end cabinet I had 3″ of overhang that I had to cut off with my jigsaw.

So here it is all cut and nailed into place:

Not quite exciting looking, we know. Eventually we will be adding trim – baseboards, corner pieces and perhaps even a three paneled board and batten look. Not sure yet. Oh, and it will of course get painted to match the cabinets. But for now it accomplishes the goal of squaring off that corner for the countertop measuring festivities (it’ll have a 12″ overhang of Corian on two sides to accommodate four stools).

Can you sort of start to see how it is coming together? Of course the chairs are placeholder and we hope to get some lighter looking stools (perhaps made of acrylic for a pleasant airy feeling).

Oh, and do you notice the other thing that we did in the picture above? I will give you a hint. It starts with a “p” and ends with “aint touch ups.”

Obviously paint was not a critical step for the counter templating process, but it was more for our sanity (and we had it all on hand so it was free). There is still plenty to be painted (um, hello cabinets – but those have to wait until we get our counters in to avoid dings). So we got busy painting the raw trim, drywall, and paneling leftover from the pantry/fridge shuffle and wall opening. It truly does make our exceedingly unfinished kitchen look a smidge less unfinished.

You will notice that we opted to paint the inside edge of the half wall light grey like the dining room. We figured it’d be weird to carry the grellow that is on the kitchen paneling over since the side of the half-wall is drywall (like the light gray dining room). The soft grey is much more subtle and nearly looks white like the rest of the door jamb, so it works nicely.

Oh and do not mind the drip on the “temporary threshold.” That is in fact simply a piece of paneling that we had leftover from the wall opening project that we cut down, flipped painted-side-down, and nailed in to bridge the gap that was created by removing the wall. It’ll eventually get covered with cork and we will add a quite small threshold to join the cork to the original hardwood (simply like we did in our first house where the original hardwoods met the new ones that we brought in to half of the house).

Now here are a bunch of “after painting” pictures of the kitchen and dining room (since it is the closest thing we will have to a polished after for at least a few months). But ignore the two oddly placed floor lamps in the dining room (we cannot wait to get a big chandelier for over the dining table) along with the new microwave box sitting near the built ins (the new dishwasher box is hanging out in the office until install time).

Oh, and although it is not the most glamorous angle, a few folks requested a view from the living room, so here it is. We enjoy that we can see the giant picture window from the back of the house. Widening this doorway would certainly be a pleasant change, but having widened a former-exterior brick wall in our first house we know it is a messy and not necessarily straightforward job (this used to be the back of our house before they brought in an addition, which means it is hugely load bearing and could be a big ol’ can of worms). So for now it is on our “perhaps someday list.” Although sometimes we think we will appreciate the privacy in the living room since it is not a big wide-open straight shot from the front window to the back of the house.

Wow, that was a lot of pictures for a post about little things like filling gaps around the stove, nailing a panel to the peninsula, and doing some paint touch ups. I counted an even 30 photos. Guess we have been a bit trigger glad with the camera lately. Must have something to do with that glorious new doorway of ours. And yes, we still walk into the kitchen and grin at it like fools.

What little updates or small progress have you made on projects around your house? Any last minute tasks that you are trying to bang out before this weekend or Thanksgiving?

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