My Office Area Studio Cabinets – From Start To Finish

Those cabinets, which are also IKEA Sektion cabinets, turned out like this…

So while much of the process was the same for the office area cabinets, there were also a lot of additional steps required to get the office area cabinets to look like this…

So I’ll start at the beginning and go through the process for these cabinets.

Prepping the cabinet boxes

After putting the cabinet boxes together according to the instructions provided with the IKEA Sektion cabinets, I made and attached my own feet rather than using the feet that you can purchase separately from IKEA for the Sektion cabinets. The reason I did this is because I needed a very specific height that was shorter than the shortest possible height that the IKEA adjustable legs provide. So I just used 1″ x 4″ lumber, cut down to the right width on my table saw, and then cut, glued and nailed four pieces together for each foot that I needed. They didn’t need to be pretty since they wouldn’t show on the finished cabinets.

And then I attached those to the bottoms of the lower cabinets using a hot glue gun.

Installing the IKEA Sektion cabinets

I also didn’t use the rails that IKEA sells for securing the cabinets to the wall. Instead, I used 1″ x 4″ lumber, attached to the wall by screwing it into the studs, and then I used the hardware provided (screws and brackets) with the cabinets to screw the cabinets to the 1″ x 4″ board, and also to screw the cabinets to each other.

And here’s where this cabinet installation became very different from the mural wall cabinet installation. Once the lower cabinets were secured to the wall and to each other, I added the side upper cabinet boxes, screwing the boxes together as I went along.

With all of the boxes assembled and secured to the wall and each other, this is what it looked like…

Customizing and painting IKEA Veddinge doors and drawer fronts

I used Veddinge doors and drawer fronts because they’re flat and made of MDF, so I thought they would be the easiest to customize. I sanded each one on the front and back…

And then added trim to customize the look…

After the trim was attached and caulked, I used BIN shellac-based primer to prime the doors and drawer fronts using my sprayer.

I sanded by hand with 220-grit sandpaper between each coat to ensure the best finish possible.

The basic idea is that I needed to not only build out the sides of the cabinets, but also provide area for front trim to be attached to, as well as add space for electrical wires to travel through.

And I did that by adding two 2″ x 2″ pieces of lumber to each side of each cabinet…

And then attaching plywood to those 2″ x 2″ strips. (I used plywood instead of the IKEA side panels since I was going to be priming and painting.)

That allowed me to add trim to the front edges (turning the doors and drawer fronts from full overlay to inset), and it also allowed me to run wiring to add sconces.

But again, every step of that process is detailed in the post linked above.

Building the bridge

I decided to build a bridge connecting the two side cabinets mainly because without the bridge, the cabinets seemed to be a bit dwarfed by this very large and tall wall. You can see what I mean in this photo.

I felt like adding a bridge would make the cabinets look much more substantial on that big wall, as well as giving the cabinets a more custom look.

I also shared a “cheat” method for creating the look of substantial crown molding without the hassle of having to actually cut crown molding.

Here’s what the faux crown molding looked like once it was installed.

And here’s how the cabinets looked once they were all trimmed out…

And after that, it was just a matter of priming, painting, and clear coating the cabinets before I could install the doors and drawer fronts.

Building the countertop

I made the countertop on this section of cabinets in the exact same way I made the long 20-foot countertop on the mural wall section of cabinets.

The main difference between that long 20-foot countertop and this smaller one was that this smaller countertop required returns on the ends since the countertop sat between cabinets, with the the countertop projecting about an inch past the front of the cabinets, instead of sitting between two side walls.

The finishing details

And with a few more details, like installing the window trim, installing the sconces, and gold leafing the backs of the cubbies, and adding the drawer and door pulls, the cabinets were finished!