How to Build Your Own Cabinets: Techniques and Projects

Cabinets are some of the most versatile and rewarding woodworking projects out there, and they can be designed to fit almost any space imaginable. If the idea of applying your woodworking skills to building cabinets and other storage solutions sounds intimidating, it’s not. It’s actually a lot easier than you think.

There’s an art and craft that goes into building your own cabinetry, whether it’s for storing dishes and foodstuffs in your kitchen, keeping books neat and organized in a child’s bedroom, or for making essential tools and first aid equipment more accessible around your shop. There’s also a strong sense of pride that comes from creating cabinets the way you want them instead of being limited to commercial options or expensive custom work. Knowing the woodworking techniques behind great cabinetry gives you the power to take matters into your own hands.

And, while cabinetry can be a challenge, any woodworker can—and should—take it on. All you really need to understand cabinetmaking, and to do it in your own shop, are the techniques and guidance of a master woodworker.

Woodworking instructor George Vondriska of the Woodworkers Guild of America has crafted a series of lessons designed to give you those very techniques. In the 11 lessons of How to Build Your Own Cabinets: Techniques and Projects, George takes you into his workshop for an in-depth look at how woodworkers build cabinets—and how you can, too. You’ll learn step-by-step methods for building your own projects, from kitchen cabinets to bookshelves to dressers. And you’ll come away with a host of tips and tricks you can use you the next time you set foot in your workshop.

Build Drawers, Bookshelves, and More

From calculating your dimensions to assembling the final project, Mr. Vondriska guides you through several exciting woodworking projects designed to exercise your woodworking skills and put the knowledge you learn in these lessons to practice.

In How to Build Your Own Cabinets, you’ll get the chance to build projects perfect for your home or wood shop.

• Kitchen cabinets: Imagine kitchen cabinets that fit you, not the other way around. Over the course of several lessons, you’ll get an informative walkthrough of how to design, build, and finish your own kitchen cabinets, as well as tips on how to mount them.
• Dressers: Mr. Vondriska shows you how to build your own dresser (either with uniform drawers or drawers of graduated dimensions). And it all starts with mastering the craft of making a simple drawer, to which Mr. Vondriska devotes an entire helpful lesson.
• Bookshelves: Two lessons in this course are devoted to different styles of bookshelves. First, learn how to make an impressive swiveling bookcase that can double as storage for coats. Then, tackle a more traditional bookcase made from cherry that includes dentil molding.
• Small cabinets: Not all cabinetry has to be massive; some of it can be designed for simple things that need to be readily accessible in your workshop. This course offers build ideas for cabinets that can hold safety gear and first aid kits.

And the best part: Even if you’re a novice woodworker, Mr. Vondriska carefully guides you through every single project. You’ll never feel overwhelmed—or left behind.

Shop-Tested Tips and Techniques

As in his other popular woodworking lessons with The Great Courses, Mr. Vondriska has filled How to Build Your Own Cabinets with easy-to-use, shop-tested tips, tricks, and techniques that will help you tackle your next project with more confidence and knowledge.

Here’s just a sampling of the helpful insights you’ll learn throughout this course.

• When using a router freehand for delicate jobs, move the router with your hands and fingers, not with your arms and shoulders. Because hands and fingers are best for small movements, this will help ensure your cuts are more precise.
• Building doors with a stub-tenon joint is a good way to solve a couple of problems. First, it can fit the groove very specifically to a piece of plywood. It can also result in a door that has square inner edges instead of profiled inner edges.
• Want to avoid tear-out when cutting your rails? Mr. Vondriska recommends you make your end-grain cuts first, which simplifies support the material to prevent tear out.
• Choosing the right wood is a critical part of any woodworking project. Choices include plywood, medium-density fiberboard, and melamine. Learn which material is best for your next project.
• When building cabinet doors, remember that the door hardware often dictates the dimensions of your cabinet doors, so make sure to purchase the hardware before crafting the doors.
• There’s nothing worse than getting three-quarters of the way through assembling a cabinet and realizing you’ve got some pieces on backwards. Take time to label your parts and sides to ensure you don’t lose track of where you are on the piece.
• When building projects from solid wood remember to allow for the expansion and contraction of the material due to humidity and other seasonal changes. Neglecting to take this into account can often lead to cracks appearing in your project.
• When assembling a cabinet, make sure to clamp in right-angle fixtures to assure you have square corners. Check for square by measuring from corner to corner when you’re done.

Get Out There and Make Chips

For more than 30 years, Mr. Vondriska has taught audiences across the country the secrets of great woodworking. He has also taught for organizations including the Peace Corps, Northwest Airlines, and the Pentagon. Currently the Managing Editor of the Woodworkers Guild of America, he’s written for popular woodworking publications including American Woodworker Magazine and Woodworkers Journal.

Illuminating to both novice and seasoned woodworkers, the tips and tricks in How to Build Your Own Cabinets will help you rethink the way you work with wood. And every single one of these lessons will open your eyes to the possibilities (and the projects) hidden inside your own everyday workshop.

With Mr. Vondriska’s practical and engaging lessons, you’ll find yourself more inspired than ever to start your own cabinetry projects or, as he puts it at the close of some of these lessons, to “get out there and make chips!”