Building a base frame for Ikea cabinets.

 I swear, I was framed.

December 29th, 2013

Putting in framing for the kitchen cabinets.  We are installing Ikea kitchen cabinets, but the instructions will tell you if your cabinets are not going against a wall, which of course we have a peninsula, that you need to use some form of framing to secure your cabinets instead of just using the Ikea legs.  Well, Ikea doesn't really tell you how to do this.  We find that two 2x4's attached to each other and then to subfloors gives you the perfect height.  Our countertops should be around 36", I say, should be, because we are making those too, later on that.  This framing will give you a 4 1/4" toekick after putting in 3/4" hardwood floors.  We are also making our own toekicks instead of using Ikeas, so the framing we also allow us to just nail the toekick right to this frame.  It's much harder to attach it to the Ikea legs as they use a grove cut in their toekicks for installation.

Since we had to make the frame for the peninsula, we just continued it for all the cabinets.  The wire sticking out of the wall is for the cooktop.

This is the plumbing for the sink and the square hole is a an air vent.  We left a 12 1/4" gap in the framing for the air vent in the toekick.

And then we also screwed another 2x4 to the wall so that it's at the same height as the frame.  The cabinets will sit on top of that board against the wall.  Make sure you screw that into the studs.

Last look at the corner before the cabinets go in.