DIY Easy Shop Cabinets with Woodshop Diaries

You all know I love a collab! Shara from Woodshop Diaries spent 3 days with me and we built all of the cabinets for my shop. What an exhausting and fun project to do together. I have been waiting for this dream shop for so long and now that it’s finally ready for me to use it I’m so excited. Maybe the coolest thing about this build is that you can find the plans for all of my shop cabinets in two places, on Shara’s website and on Kreg’s website. So if you’d like to build out your shop just like I did, it couldn’t be easier. But here’s how we did it!

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Want to see this build in action? You can watch my build video here (+ make sure to subscribe to my channel)!

Tools + Materials

Tools

Materials

Here’s Shara! So happy she’s here for this project.

Here’s our blank slate where the cabinets will be installed.

1. Cut the Plywood to Size

Shara cut down the plywood to the width we needed using a circular saw and Kreg Rip Cut.

Then she cut them to the final height we needed for the cabinet boxes with the Kreg Accu-Cut. This is essentially a guide for your circular saw so you can make really straight cuts.

Then she used my cordless miter saw to cut out the rest of the pieces for the plywood cabinets.

2. Notch out the Backs and Fronts

I have concrete curbs that are running along 3 walls of my shop, I mean why not? So because we want the cabinets to be flush to the wall I had to notch out along the bottom of each cabinet in order to make them fit.

We also notched out the fronts of the cabinets for a toe kick.

So naturally I used my jig saw to make these cuts.

3. Edgebanding

One way to level up plywood cabinets is by edgebanding them. So Shara was lucky enough to get the job of adhering the edgebanding to all of the cabinet pieces.

4. Sand

I got the lucky job of sanding…a lot of sanding.

5. Pocket Holes

Shara drilled pocket holes in the larger plywood pieces with the Pocket Hole Jig 720.

While I used the Kreg Foreman for the smaller pieces.

6. Assemble the Cabinets

We raced to see who could assemble their cabinet the fastest. I had a feeling Shara would win but I tried my dang hardest to beat her. I was only 3 pocket holes behind!

7. Install the Cabinets

We installed the cabinets into the studs of the wall, shimmed them up from the floor to make sure they were level and screwed them into each other.

Of course we had to work around my lovely electrical system. We put a larger support piece on this furthest left cabinet so we could cut into it and make it fit flush around the electrical wiring.

In order to do that we dry fit the cabinets, screwed them together and made sure they were level first. Then we marked out where we needed to cut so they would fit perfectly.

Once it was marked I just cut those notches out with my jigsaw.

8. Cut Drawer Fronts and Fill in Gaps

Shara focused on cutting down the cabinet and drawer fronts with the Accu-Cut.

While I focused on cutting down smaller filler pieces for in between the walls and the cabinets.

I wanted to take some time to set myself up for organizational systems. (Yes, there’s a blog post all about that! Check it out here!) So I used the Kreg Shelf Pin Jig to drill adjustable shelf pin holes.

9. Day 2 – Cut Drawer Boxes & Assemble

At this point the cabinet boxes were complete!

Shara used the rip-cut to cut all the drawer boxes to the same depth.

Then I had the super fun job of sanding every single piece she cut and handed to me. Yay woodworking.

Once all of the pieces were sanded it was time for Shara to put the frames of the boxes together using pocket hole screws.

Next I added the bottom of the drawer boxes using glue and brad nails.

10. Install Drawers

Shara used the Kreg Drawer Slide Jig to install the drawer slides. This helped accurately position the slides and the bases, leaving little room for error when squaring everything up.

Yes, of course we chose soft close drawers.

11. Cabinet Tops

It was time for me to get to working on the cabinet tops. I used Kreg’s Adaptive Cutting System to cut through this thick butcher block like it was butter. It was really helpful to use a track saw for this because it’s difficult to lift heavy material onto a table saw, and if you have walls like me, none of them are straight and you can adjust for that.

I used the jig saw to notch out the spots for the electrical just like I did with the support on the left most cabinet.

And of course sanded them down since this part will be visible.

I attached the top to the cabinets from the underside using oversized holes as well as screws and washers to leave a little wiggle room for the wood to expand and contract.

12. Drawer & Cabinet Fronts

Shara attached the drawer fronts. What do we think about that continuous grain??

Shara also installed the cabinet hinges with Kreg’s Concealed Hinge Jig which perfectly aligned the hinges.

Then she installed the door with Kreg’s Cabinet Mounting Jig, which really made this process a breeze because it holds the door in place while you attach it.

13. Miter Saw Supports

I mounted supports for the Miter Saw because the saw has to sit lower than the cabinet top, this way everything will be level once it’s all installed.

I was very excited to finally be able to see the vision for this miter saw station!

14. Stain

We love it right?

15. Finishing Touches

One of the last details I wanted to add was a little backsplash backer behind the butcherblock top.

Then it was time to give everything a coat of varnish.

I chose to use Total Boat’s Halcyon Finish and it goes on great with a little foam roller. Highly recommend it for woodworking projects.

I attached the hardware to the drawers and cabinets and used Kreg’s Cabinet Hardware Jig. My handles were a little bigger than the jig so I had to get creative but it ended up working out perfectly.

Next was adding in the toe kick to make everything look nice and neat. But as you can see…my floors are super unlevel.

This is one of the reasons I love using a track saw. I was able to make this really uneven cut which made the toe kick match my floors.

After I made that cut I stained it and installed it with brad nails.

What do we think? I am so excited because now that my cabinets are done, including the storage cabinets Shara and I built in her video, it’s finally time to move my tools in! My tools have not been under one roof in so long, they’ve been scattered around my house, or in my shed shop, or my dad stole them and I am so happy to finally bring them home! I can’t thank Shara enough, we crushed this build in just 3 days and I couldn’t have done it without her. Stay tuned for more projects friends, but until then, Happy DIYing!