Built-in Cabinet Suggestion

[jx67]

I am planning on making a built-in cabinet (actually more of a chest with four drawers) for my son's room. The room has an extra thick drywall section that's hollow inside, about 20" wide, 45" high and 18" deep. When we bought the house, we had an option to cover this section to a bookshelf so I know I can open this up.

My question is, what's usually the best way to join the front frame with the drywall? Three options: indent in (which I have to worry about making the corners for the drywall), flush, or stick out. There's a base board about 1/2" so if I stick out the frame, I might flush with the base board.

Joe.

[Tom Miller]

It'll depend somewhat on the construction of the cabinet. Is it face-frame construction?

During construction of an addition a couple years ago, I framed in an opening for a built-in face-frame cabinet in our master bath. I opted to have the cabinet sit about 3/4" proud of the drywall, and trimmed it with some quarter-round against the sides of the face frame, and the drywall.

Regards,
Tom

[LarryG]

It's never a good idea to try to flush out two completely different assemblies (existing wall, new cabinet) made of dissimilar materials (gypsum board, wood). One, the other, or both will not be perfectly straight/plumb and setting them flush with each other will only call attention to this.

I agree that wrapping the gypsum board back into the new opening would be more work, so I'd suggest letting the cabinet protrude. How far depends on how plumb the existing wall is. The more plumb it is, the less protrusion you can get by with with the cabinet. I wouldn't go less than 3/4", as Tom did with his.

[jx67]

Thanks, Tom and Larry for the suggestion. I agree flush is probably not a good way. The other bit of information I forgot to mention was that there's also a closet closed by, the closet, like most others I've seen, is recessed. So I am thinking even it's more work, I might still go for recessing to avoid disappointments when I get it done.

BTW, I plan to use face frame, with the inset drawers.

Regards,
Joe.

[siliconbauhaus]

what about flush and then run a architrave around it to match your doors?

[cabinetman]

On installations like that I like to allow some outward reveal of some sort. The amount would depend on the thickness of any trim moulding used. The whole front could be an overlay that when slid in a side trim on the cabinet rested on the wall, like a flange.

Any installations I've done similar to that included interior bracing in the opening that gave something to screw to once the cabinet was in place. It's easy to cause some damage to the wall with hard use if the cabinet isn't totally immobilized.



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