Continuing with the Victorianna’s kitchen cabinets: I wanted the upper cabinet on the right of the fridge to include a shelf for the microwave. This required buying or making a microwave before I could make the cabinets on that side, so I’d know how wide that cabinet needed to be.

Mini Etchers makes a microwave that’s 1.5″ wide. That would leave less than 1 inch to the left of the fridge, which I thought would bring the fridge too close to the stove and look cramped. Instead I could have put a 1.5″ cabinet with the microwave on the left of the fridge, pushing the fridge closer to the kitchen door, but then the microwave would be blocked by the fridge and hard to see.

I emailed Shellie at Mini Etchers about my dilemma and she offered to shrink down the width of the microwave for me. Here’s what she came up with — now it’s only 1″ wide.

Before assembling the kit, I “painted” the pieces with a silver Sharpie on the outside and a black Sharpie on the inside.

Because of how much Shellie shrunk down the microwave front, one edge is exactly the same width as the wood that forms that side of the box. I wanted to add a piece of plastic to the inside of the door but didn’t have any wood to glue it to on that edge.

So I cut a piece of plastic exactly the same size as the inside of the microwave and glued it to the other side, top, and bottom of the inside of the door. It is wedged in there pretty good, but since it’s not attached on one side, I have to be careful not to punch through it with my finger when I’m handling the microwave.

(This isn’t quite done — I want to print out a digital display to glue on, and might make the buttons black so they stand out more.)

Next I built the upper cabinet to hold the microwave. This is 2″ tall (the equivalent of a 48″ cabinet) and 1/2″ deep, with 1/4″ square pieces inside providing support. I made the shelf slightly larger than the microwave so it can be removed easily.

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The Victorianna’s kitchen sink will be centered under the window. After building the cabinet, I next needed to figure out how the window lined up with it.

The window isn’t glued in yet. I held the cabinet up to the window hole and marked the edges of the window on the back side. Then I measured from the edge of the cabinet to these lines, and made lines in the same spots on the front side.

The window hole is slightly less than 1.5″ wide, so I decided to round up and make this a 1.5″ cabinet (36″ in real life). I learned when renovating my own kitchen that this is a standard size for sinks.

I’m using 1/4″ x 1/32″ basswood for the drawers and 1/8″ x 1/32″ for the doors. I cut the drawers first and glued them on. Next I cut vertical pieces for the doors and glued these on, lining them up with the edges of the drawers. Finally I cut the horizontal door pieces to fit inside the vertical pieces. Simple, Shaker-style cabinets!

Next I cut the countertop pieces. As you can see here, the wall isn’t square so the countertop piece doesn’t reach all the way back.

I used the belt sander to sand an angle that contours to the wall (more or less). The crack of space at the corner will be covered up with the backsplash. The countertop is flush where it meets the stove, but slightly overhangs on the other side (just like in my real kitchen). I notched it so it fits around the bay window trim.

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