Guest Post by Mr. Lettered Cottage

When we moved in to the Lettered Cottage, we were less than impressed with the height (and finish) of our Kitchen cabinets. After visiting a neighbors house, we learned that with paint, and a few pieces of moulding, we could get the look we wanted.

Meet Kevin.

My husband, and the man behind the magical moulding.

:-)

-----------------------------------------------------------

Hello there!

I'm Kevin, and this is officially my first blog post. Here goes....

Let me start by saying I thoroughly enjoy working on this home.

I am truly inspired by Layla's never-ending passion and ideas. It has been absolutely magical watching this place come to life, and it's so cool to be a part of it.

Alright, let's talk moulding!

This project calls for a lot of miter cuts, which, if your anything like me- means you'll be running back to the hardware store to buy more wood. It can be a little tricky trying to figure out the angles sometimes. There are online tutorials about how to cut crown moulding, but I'm more of a "wing it and pray" kind of guy.

I used this Ryobi compound miter saw. It was the cheapest one in the store, but it always seems to get the job done...

Here are the various pieces of trim, MDF and moulding I purchased...

It's just 1"x6" pre-primed MDF, some 3" crown moulding, and some small, wood decorative trim moulding.

All of the cuts had to be made holding the moulding at an angle. It took me a minute (and a few pieces of moulding) to figure that out!

I tried to nail the crown moulding pieces to my 1"x6" pieces, but after splitting a couple of pieces of crown, I finally decided to just use wood glue. I used painters tape to hold the pieces together, until the wood glue dried. Wood glue is extremely strong and since we don't plan on hanging from the tops of our cabinets, I think it'll work just fine...

Here are the cabinets above the stove before I got started...

...and here is what the cabinet on the left looked like after I attached the first 1"x6"s, and the first piece of crown moulding...

And here it is, all taped in place...

I wish we had a small nail gun. With all these projects, I think it's time to invest in one!

Here is a finished corner...

I used a type of caulk that starts out pink, then turns white when it's dry. Pretty cool!
Caulk can be a real life saver if the corners of the moulding don't meet up perfectly.(Or should I say WHEN the corners of the moulding don't meet up perfectly!) :-)

Here is a photo of the kitchen cabinets with all of the new moulding in place. That was definitely the hard part, now on to the fun stuff!

I used small, decorative wood trim to hide the seam between the cabinet and the 1"x6". The miters are a lot easier to cut on these little guys, because the trim sits flush to the cabinet, it doesn't stick out at a 45 degree angle like the crown does.

Next up on my to-do list was to install an Above-Range Microwave. I put up a piece of wood to mount the top of the microwave to.

I simply secured the shelf to the cabinets on either side with L brackets and screws. Pretty easy...

I had an electrician come over and install a dedicated outlet above the wood shelf for the microwave to plug into. It was a cinch for him to install, and since he was here less than an hour, it didn't cost that much at all...

Oh yeah, that reminds me. I say, don't let the placement of your outlets dictate the placement of your furniture. I used to think the T.V. had to go on whichever wall the cable outlet was on, even if it meant you hated the way your furniture was arranged. For the price of a night out on the town, an outlet can be moved. And all that furniture you worked so hard to get, will finally look right!

Here I am, getting close to the finish line! I added a piece of wood above the microwave to give it some height...

...and added some more of the little decorative trim and this log scale stick Layla picked up at Eastbrook for good measure! :)


I painted everything black, distressed the edges, added a coat of polyurethane and put a cool old wine rack, we got for $4.99, on top. Layla isn't a huge fan of wine racks above microwaves, but I like it, and I'd like it to stay. It even looks cool empty...

There used to be a cabinet hanging where the new microwave is, so I'm going to reuse it by re-hanging it above the refrigerator. Then on the right side of the fridge, there will be another tall, pantry cabinet, like the one on the left side of the fridge. Layla says it will make the fridge look more "built in". I'm down with that.

Layla still needs to add more corbels underneath the upper cabinets I just finished.

But for now, it's 6 o'clock, and I'm going to go see if she wants to kick it on the front porch with me for a bit.

One more thing though, before I sign off. I want to thank you all sooo much for all the kind comments you leave here! It truly means the world to my bride. You have all inspired her more than you will ever know. This blog has changed our lives in such a positive way...and it's because of all of you!!

I had a great time writing this, have an awesome weekend-

Kevin

P.S. We have plans to change out the dishwasher (which is broken), the stove (which is malfunctioning) and the refrigerator with stainless steel ones too.