I installed the remaining doors and drawer fronts except for the fork and knife drawer and garbage can door.
I needed to replace the slide on the drawer as it has been broken for 20 years. I had gone through the steps in my head, but I then discovered I did not have the clearance to install drawer slides on the side. I needed a center under-mount slide. Back to the store for a replacement.
Again, I worked out the plan in my head. I had the slide parts installed on the cabinet frame and the drawer. Now for the test slide. Nope, the drawer was hitting on something. I removed a remnant of the old slide still attached. Nope, still hitting. The bottom of the old drawer front was hitting the frame. I removed it. Nope. The drawer was hitting on the left side. I moved over the drawer slide just a bit. Nope. The drawer closed, except it went in crooked. I checked my measurements. They were off. The slide under the drawer was not square. I rechecked my measurements. Yup. I straightened out the slide and… Yeah!, it finally worked.
I pre-assembled the garbage can slide at work. I brought it home and it sat in my car until the day before I was going to install it. Well, this was the day. After struggling what supposedly should have been an easy drawer slide install, I was not anticipating this installation to be any easier.
Since I needed to attach the slides to the base of the cabinet, I was going to use toggle bolts to hold the slides in place. The particle board used for the cabinet base was not strong enough to hold the slides down. The last time I installed a garbage can slide, the screws just pulled away from the base. I was not going to have this happen again.
Looking for the standard toggle bolts at the home improvement store, I came upon this new-fangled toggle bolt from Fliptoggle®. Can I say, “It was the best thing since sliced bread?” While these toggle bolts where pricey, the ease of the install made them well worth it. No need to have the screw already attached to the slide. The metal piece that the screw threads into is held in place by a plastic strap and cap. Drill your ½” hole, drop in the metallic head, pull up on the strap tight against the cap and snap off the excess strap. Line up your slide with the screw and screw it down.
After a couple of test slides, the installation of the garbage can slide was done in less than 30 minutes. I still needed to install the door panel.
The brackets came with double-sided tape so you could mount the brackets to the panel and line the panel up with the door opening. My initial measurements were good and the door panel fit well. I screwed down the panel using bigger screws than the manufacturer provided. That door panel was not going to be pulled off that bracket! I connected the panel to the slide bracket and adjust it so it was plumb. Again, I made a couple of test slides and I was done. That was too easy.
Later that day, Efiwym caught me staring at the cabinets. She curiously asked if there was anything wrong. I told her no. I was just admiring my work. The kitchen cabinet door upcycling project was done. In fact, the whole upcycling cabinet door project was complete. All 35 doors and 14 drawers in the house were done, even the laundry chute door upstairs. It was a great feeling. Wait for it…that Zen Moment.
