"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

I made the mistake of installing all my cabinets level and true in a
kitchen that is anything but.

Any ideas how to fill the gap? Somehow I don't think caulk and paint is
the answer. Neither is fixing the ceiling an option.


I can see two options , rehang the cabinets lower and put crown molding up
to cover the gap.

Or, cut some filler strips for the cabinet set on the right of the window to
flush the tops with the alcove
ceiling, then put up bead board over the wall above the whole length of the
cabinets, cut so it
fits to level out the bottom line. The side of the cabinets by the window
could have a short thin
piece of trim matching on each side, then a valence across the front of the
window area between the two
sets of cabinets to direct the eye away from that, Probably could use a
piece of crown spanning
between the two sets of cabinets and under the bead board across the wall,
making a flush
line wall to wall. Round over the edge of the bead board on the bottom? or
leave square
Paint it all white, The vertical pattern should visually hide the error.
Chuck

Hello everyone,

I made the mistake of installing all my cabinets level and true in a kitchen
that is anything but.

The old cabinets were pushed flush with the ceiling and had quarter round
between them and the ceiling. Things rolled around in the old cabinets.

I now have the dilemma of how to fix this random gap between the tops of my
cabinets and the ceiling. In some places the cabinets touch the ceiling and
in other places there is a 3/4" gap. The face frame exposure above the doors
is about 7/8".

Hindsight tells me I should have figured out the difference in level in the
ceiling and made the face frames and side panels large enough to allow for
scribing.

Any ideas how to fill the gap? Somehow I don't think caulk and paint is the
answer. Neither is fixing the ceiling an option.

I am trying to think of some sort of trim design/style that I can put up
there to fix things that won't look all stupid being made of various widths.
I was thinking of making some sort of trim starting with a min height of
1/2" where the cabinets are flush, expanding to 1-1/4" at the worst gap. Add
to this the fact that I deliberately made the face frame sides proud of the
side panels, and that issue needs to be dealt with (mitre, mitre, mitre,
another mitre, mitre, mitre, another mitre....).

I am thinking 1/2" trim with maybe a 3/8" quarter round with bead on both
sides to mimic the doors. In order to do this with speed. I would prepaint
the trim, scribe it and hang it with 23g pins

To make matters worse, time is seriously of the essence. I take possession
of my new house in a little over three weeks and I really need to get this
done ASAP!

Finishing the kitchen is one of the many jobs that needed to be done last
month .

HELP!

David

In article ,
"David F. Eisan" wrote:

Any ideas how to fill the gap? Somehow I don't think caulk and paint is the
answer. Neither is fixing the ceiling an option.

Having skipped the "scribe" option, which looks dumb anyway on something
this far out of whack (you can see that there's 1/2 inch from this door
to the ceiling, and 1 inch over there...I have a kitchen with this
method, and it just screams "ceiling out of whack") there are a couple
that come to mind.

If the lowered section of ceiling matches the cabinets pretty well
(difficult to be sure form the pictures) then skip the caulk and go
right to spackle, or even chunks of drywall, and spackle, and paint.

If that's a no-go, then you need a trim-chunk on the cabinets to match
the lowered section of ceiling, and a chunk of overlayed trim to cover
the sins - which need not be fancy crown molding - given what I can see
of the woodwork, a simple board with perhaps the corners beveled would
be a reasonable molding. So you have the level trim on cabinet to bring
the face flush with the lowered section of ceiling, and then the level
molding layed on top of that, wide enough to hide the gap.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

David F. Eisan wrote:
Hello everyone,

I made the mistake of installing all my cabinets level and true in a kitchen
that is anything but.

The old cabinets were pushed flush with the ceiling and had quarter round
between them and the ceiling. Things rolled around in the old cabinets.

I now have the dilemma of how to fix this random gap between the tops of my
cabinets and the ceiling. In some places the cabinets touch the ceiling and
in other places there is a 3/4" gap. The face frame exposure above the doors
is about 7/8".

Hindsight tells me I should have figured out the difference in level in the
ceiling and made the face frames and side panels large enough to allow for
scribing.

Any ideas how to fill the gap? Somehow I don't think caulk and paint is the
answer. Neither is fixing the ceiling an option.

I am trying to think of some sort of trim design/style that I can put up
there to fix things that won't look all stupid being made of various widths.
I was thinking of making some sort of trim starting with a min height of
1/2" where the cabinets are flush, expanding to 1-1/4" at the worst gap. Add
to this the fact that I deliberately made the face frame sides proud of the
side panels, and that issue needs to be dealt with (mitre, mitre, mitre,
another mitre, mitre, mitre, another mitre....).

I am thinking 1/2" trim with maybe a 3/8" quarter round with bead on both
sides to mimic the doors. In order to do this with speed. I would prepaint
the trim, scribe it and hang it with 23g pins

To make matters worse, time is seriously of the essence. I take possession
of my new house in a little over three weeks and I really need to get this
done ASAP!

Finishing the kitchen is one of the many jobs that needed to be done last
month .

HELP!

David



I used to sell kitchen cabinets, and in my experience talking to
installers, your gaps are not unusual. AAMOF, it was pretty much the
same in my house when we redid the kitchen a year or so ago. Generally,
just a thin, flat molding is used around the tops of the cabinets, If
you try to get too fancy, you will accentuate the problem by drawing
attention to it.

Here is the good news and the bad news: The bad news is no matter what
you do, YOU will always notice this problem. The good news is that as
long as you cover up the gaps unobtrusively, no one else will.

"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

I made the mistake of installing all my cabinets level and true in a
kitchen that is anything but.

That's not a mistake, it's the way to do it.

[...] Somehow I don't think caulk and paint is the answer.[...]

Actually that is the answer. You will need to infill with wood, but not too
carefully, best to have about a quarter inch gap between the wood infill and
the masonry. Then squeeze acrylic caulk into the gap, smooth off with a damp
cloth and paint with the wall colour. Use masking tape to keep the caulk off
the cabinets.

That is absolutely the best practice, least visible, no gaps, no joins, no
extra lines or trims or mitres: tidy, quick and easy.

Tim W

Hi David...
Looks like the same jackass that built our house, built yours.

What they did in our place, and it actually looks pretty good, was a cove
type molding under the soffit and it did a very nice job of hiding the mess
they left.

We are in the process of refinishing ours now.. cheap and ugly but could not
afford to replace them so we are *ehm* customizing them to match an old
sideboard we have recently loved back into life and our dining room table.

I'll try to get you a photo when we get the molding put back up.

Kate

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 11:45:28 -0500, "Kate" wrote:

Hi David...
Looks like the same jackass that built our house, built yours.

That jackass gets around. 8^)

I recently had a carpeted pine staircase replaced with solid red oak.

Fortunately, I hired a real stairbuilder, not someone who tried to
shim in a premade staircase (_I_ can do that!). The steps in the
center of the staircase were a full 1" wider than the ends, due to a
major bow in the wall. The stair case looks great, but the bow is
unreal.

sheetrock mud ?


"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

I made the mistake of installing all my cabinets level and true in a
kitchen that is anything but.

The old cabinets were pushed flush with the ceiling and had quarter round
between them and the ceiling. Things rolled around in the old cabinets.

I now have the dilemma of how to fix this random gap between the tops of
my cabinets and the ceiling. In some places the cabinets touch the ceiling
and in other places there is a 3/4" gap. The face frame exposure above the
doors is about 7/8".

Hindsight tells me I should have figured out the difference in level in
the ceiling and made the face frames and side panels large enough to allow
for scribing.

Any ideas how to fill the gap? Somehow I don't think caulk and paint is
the answer. Neither is fixing the ceiling an option.

I am trying to think of some sort of trim design/style that I can put up
there to fix things that won't look all stupid being made of various
widths. I was thinking of making some sort of trim starting with a min
height of 1/2" where the cabinets are flush, expanding to 1-1/4" at the
worst gap. Add to this the fact that I deliberately made the face frame
sides proud of the side panels, and that issue needs to be dealt with
(mitre, mitre, mitre, another mitre, mitre, mitre, another mitre....).

I am thinking 1/2" trim with maybe a 3/8" quarter round with bead on both
sides to mimic the doors. In order to do this with speed. I would prepaint
the trim, scribe it and hang it with 23g pins

To make matters worse, time is seriously of the essence. I take possession
of my new house in a little over three weeks and I really need to get this
done ASAP!

Finishing the kitchen is one of the many jobs that needed to be done last
month .

HELP!

David

"B a r r y" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 11:45:28 -0500, "Kate" wrote:

Hi David...
Looks like the same jackass that built our house, built yours.

That jackass gets around. 8^)

I recently had a carpeted pine staircase replaced with solid red oak.

Fortunately, I hired a real stairbuilder, not someone who tried to
shim in a premade staircase (_I_ can do that!). The steps in the
center of the staircase were a full 1" wider than the ends, due to a
major bow in the wall. The stair case looks great, but the bow is
unreal.

**

Dang!
I can sure relate, this house has so many things out of square that
sometimes it beings to mind the old rhyme:
There was a crooked man
who had a crooked house
He had a crooked cat
who ate a crooked house.....

and so on.

Kate
One crooked house, two crooked cats LOL