Get a seamless look on the side of your island using a ¼” plywood endskin. Brian explains in this quick video. Comment, give us a call, or reach out to your Cabinet Coach with any questions. We hope you enjoy your new cabinets!
Using End Skins to Hide Joined Cabinet Seams
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Video Transcript
One of the questions we get a lot is, you've got an island, a beautiful island. In this case, you've got this big, long, I think it's a 9 foot island, with a bump out. We're using our base fluted column (we're going to get into that in a separate video). Then there's this knee area with some temporary, I want to emphasize "temporary," brackets to hold the granite up until we get our permanent ones in.
The point is, what you have is back-to-back cabinets. The question we get an awful lot is, let's say you did a flush end on the side of this base 9 and you did a flush end on the side of this BFC fluid column, you're going to end up with a vertical seam right here. It's not going to look very pretty. Even though the sides will be finished, you've got the seam.
Yeah, you could cover that seam with batting molding but it still looks like heck. What we recommend is don't order the ends of these cabinets flush, just let them come raw. Then order, a cut to size, you don't have to run this through your table saw. We can size it so it comes ready to go on. Just a quarter inch skin basically. Using the 3M adhesive that we talked about many places on the website, you can get it at Lowes or Home Depot, just spray the back of the panel. Spray the side of the cabinets and stick this one. Now it's one continuous skin.
Once the counter top goes on, it looks like one big, 48 inch wide cabinet. You can see on the video if Jim gets in a little closer, this is the skin and this is the original cabinet side. We've just laminated the skin onto the side of a standard half inch, non-exposed, non-finished exterior. The price ends up being about the same. The cost of this skin is about the same as if you put the flush end option on these 2 separate cabinets. It's not costing you any more money, and you're getting a much better, much cleaner look.
The point is, what you have is back-to-back cabinets. The question we get an awful lot is, let's say you did a flush end on the side of this base 9 and you did a flush end on the side of this BFC fluid column, you're going to end up with a vertical seam right here. It's not going to look very pretty. Even though the sides will be finished, you've got the seam.
Yeah, you could cover that seam with batting molding but it still looks like heck. What we recommend is don't order the ends of these cabinets flush, just let them come raw. Then order, a cut to size, you don't have to run this through your table saw. We can size it so it comes ready to go on. Just a quarter inch skin basically. Using the 3M adhesive that we talked about many places on the website, you can get it at Lowes or Home Depot, just spray the back of the panel. Spray the side of the cabinets and stick this one. Now it's one continuous skin.
Once the counter top goes on, it looks like one big, 48 inch wide cabinet. You can see on the video if Jim gets in a little closer, this is the skin and this is the original cabinet side. We've just laminated the skin onto the side of a standard half inch, non-exposed, non-finished exterior. The price ends up being about the same. The cost of this skin is about the same as if you put the flush end option on these 2 separate cabinets. It's not costing you any more money, and you're getting a much better, much cleaner look.
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“It was easy to assemble (all you need is glue and a brad nailer) and a whole library of install/assembly videos you can access for free. Will use again! Incredibly pleased with this product.”— Rebecca from Ann Arbor, MI
what if your island is wider than 48″, unpainted, and you want the grain to be vertical?
In some species, we can do a short grain (96″ wide x 48″ tall) veneer. Otherwise, you would need to put two pieces side x side and cover the seam with a batten molding.