Add Molding To The Top Of Your Cabinets, step by step

Yup, we got a little trim. As you read in last week’s Day In The Life post, we lately tackled the add-trim-to-the-hooter-and-the-hotter-office-desk project. The basic game plan was to add some plain baseboard or molding to the bottom of our cabinets so they looked more like built-ins. In other words, the bottoms were looking a little unfinished…

I took measurements and headed off to the store with my little cheat sheet. Notice how I mark which way my cuts go? When I am making angled miter cuts I am so anxious about cutting the wrong way that I leave myself as many reminders as possible.

One quite critical measurement, not shown here, was the trim height. We had less than 3″ of distance between the floor and the cabinet doors, so traditional baseboard was not gonna work. I in fact ended up (dramatically) bringing home trim that was quite similar (in fact, perhaps exact) to what we used around our bathroom mirror. Total cost for three 8ft pieces = $14.

I measured my pieces and again left reminders about what angle my cuts needed to be…

…so that even at the last second I could make sure I did not have my blade or trim piece in backwards or something.

I checked each piece as I cut it simply to make sure the lengths and angles were right.

After everything seemed to be lining up, it was time for the nailing portion of the day’s festivities. I hammered the small finishing nails in most of the way with my hammer, then wrapped up it off with my nail punch (which helps get the nail set into the trim slightly without banging up the surrounding wood).

Of course the edges were not 100% ideal, but that is what a bit of caulk is for (simply rubbed into the edge with a finger). It is also good for hiding those slightly sunk nail heads (thanks to the nail punch). Though we in fact have not done either of those things yet. Oops. Soon…

I put two or three nails in each piece of trim, securing it to the cabinet – not the floor – and was done in nearly no time. If the white of the trim were not so darned close to the white of the cabinets already, we’d likely have painted them immediately. But they in fact look strong as they are (so we plan to paint them when we caulk stuff, simply to finish things off).

What was not looking so strong was the mess of cords in these pictures. We have simply sort of been ignoring them up to this point, but after taking the pic above we suddenly realized that they were ruining the wrapped up look of our new trim. So we chose to at last do something about it.

Sherry’s side was straightforward because she only has two plugs in one small power strip (her computer and lamp – although for some reason her lamp was not plugged in for the picture below). The outlet is hidden behind the desk, so we thought ahead and plugged the power strip in before finishing the desk. Luckily I was able to simply tuck her strip out of sight behind the cabinet since there is a smidge of space to allow for the plug (there is no space between the countertop and the wall, so it looks 100% seamless from above – you only see that small crack where the cabs do not sit right against the wall if you are on your knees under the desk). Oh and ignore the raw bottom of the countertop in all of these pictures (it is also not seen except by someone who is Burger’s height, but we will likely do something about it someday because we are anal).

My side was a bit crazier, since I had a larger power strip (from our old office set-up), more plugs (computer, phone, external hard drive, etc) and that big honking wireless FiOS router. Behold the hot mess:

Since tucking it away like Sherry’s side was not an option (stuff was way too bulky to slide behind the cabinets), I opted to hang the power strip on the wall right under the counter, that way it’d be virtually out of sight. The power strip already had notches for screws on the back, so I simply used a homemade guide to make sure I drilled my holes in the right spots.

In case the pic is not self explanatory sufficient, my basic system was:

• I taped a piece of paper to the back of the strip and poked holes through the paper with a red pen, marking the notches.
• I then held the strip where I hoped it on the wall and taped the paper to the wall
• When I gently pulled the strip away, it un-taped itself and left me with two red guide dots
• I simply drilled right through the paper so I had perfectly placed holes for my anchors and screws
• Then I hung the strip on the wall and plugged everything back in (and slid the router behind the cabinet)

Still looks a bit messy in the pic above, but when you stand back to look at the whole room it is not quite noticeable at all. So your eyes can simply concentrate on the freshly brought in trim instead. Note: of course we still have to hang art and window treatments and add bright lamps/shades and rearrange tons of desk stuff, so other than the newly completed desk there is not much about this room that is done.

Simply as a reminder, here is what the room looked like without the brought in trim and cord organization. We think it was well worth $14 for the extra polish that it adds:

Oh and here is what the room looked like right after we moved in nine months ago, simply for some way-back-when reminiscing:

This room in general has truly come along in the last month or so. Which is pleasant since we spend so much time in there.

Oh, and I had once talked about trying to add some trim to the side edges (where they nearly meet the wall) to complete the look, but Sherry and I had about fifteen pow-wows on the subject and at last chose it was not worth the trouble (to make it look truly flush I’d have to do plenty of cutting around the baseboard and that did not sound like much lively – and doing it half-heartedly would likely simply make it look worse). So once we caulk those newly brought in trim corners and nailheads, I think we are fairly much calling this desk project D-O-N-E. Here is how much we spent in total on our 13 foot long wall-to-wall double desk:

• Cabinets (from Habitat For Humanity ReStore): $6.30
• Kilz Clean Start No-VOC Primer: $0 (leftover from painting the kitchen paneling, but it would be around $20 to buy for those wondering)
• Electric sander & sandpaper: $0 (already owned, but would be around $25 to buy)
• Benjamin Moore Advance paint (in Decorators White, satin): $40 (thanks to 10% off haggling/begging)
• Pre-primed & unprimed wood to build up cabinets (from Home Depot): $51
• Framing lumber for counter (from Home Depot): $27.30
• Stain & poly for top: $0 (already owned, but would be about $8 and $20 respectively if you did not have any)
• Drillbit for boring cord holes in counter: $4 (from Lowe’s)
• Trim for bottom: $14 (from Lowe’s)
• TOTAL: $142.60

Not surprisingly, our attention has already moved on to another project in the office and we CANNOT WAIT to share it with you. Lets simply say that Sherry’s epically sore, there is paint in her hair, and she’s nowhere near done. More details (and pics) tomorrow for sure. Until then, have any of you folks brought in trim to make something look more built-in. Or launched a full-scale cord organization? Tell me about it.

Psst- To check out our whole desk building adventure from start to finish, here is the post about planning the layout of the room, here is the post about buying the cabinets, here is the post about other cabinet research we did, here is the post about sanding/priming the cabinets, here is the post about building them up to desk-height and painting them, here is the post about building and staining the counter, and here is the post about drilling cord holes into the counter.