Basic Kitchenship for Healthy Living (#13)

The Kitchen Cabinets

LJ – 008

When I had my kitchen renovated in Y2000, we spent P90,000 on my new “showcase” cabinets. The local cabinet contractor made a huge profit from my overpriced kitchen storage. The materials that said contractor used were of inferior quality and the workmanship was somewhat sloppy. These facts only became obvious to naïve-me two years later when I decided to design my own furniture and hired a top-caliber master carpenter to execute them.

Experience indeed makes one wiser and less gullible. Here are some useful tips in kitchen cabinet design, usage and care for good kitchenship. We don’t want any more incompetent cabinet maker to dupe prospective homeowners and we certainly want our kitchen cabinets to look and smell new for a very long time.

Tip #1

Don’t use a kitchen cabinet contractor-installer who showcases his work in the malls without asking for references from previous clients. By all means, check out those references one by one. My installer’s real work is way below par than those of his perfectly-crafted exhibits.

After getting the 50% down-payment, the contractor became less available to take phone calls. He failed to meet the stipulated date of installation by a month. When he and his men finally showed up to install the cabinets, the cabinets were the wrong color and finish. (Today, I take pride in myself for not killing the contractor on the spot.)

Worst of all, I discovered two years later I would have saved at least half of the cost using better materials and cut the stress significantly had I hired a master carpenter with good work ethics and collaborated with him to come up with custom-made cabinets.

By the way, the best master carpenter in Tunasan, Muntinlupa City is Ed Olayres, a “riles” resident who lives 300m from my home. You can get in touch with him through me (absolutely no commission, *innocent look*). Book him in advance to increase your chance of getting him. There is a long queue of customers waiting for a gap between his house-construction projects.

Tip #2

Install the kitchen wall and floor tiles end to end before installing the kitchen cabinets. A white-tile finish to the back of the cabinets provides high visibility of pests and dirt.

Tip #3

Use marine wood for the cabinet’s main frame. Mine was made of wood particles pressed together to form soft boards (I forgot what they are called). The ants like the soft boards so much that they made nests on door hinges. I often have to inspect the cabinets to check for new ant-homes. I fear the cabinets will just collapse one day without warning.

Tip #4

The lumber sections of all giant construction depots are stocked with a good selection of ready-made cabinet doors of various sizes. Bring with you the measurement of the spaces where you plan to install the cabinets. Pick the design you like and select the door sizes according to the available space.

Choose cabinet doors with simple lines and designs. Intricate carvings are the perfect resting places of stubborn dust and stain.

All kitchen cabinets should have doors to keep dust, germs and insects out. Glass doors for hanging cabinets make the kitchen look more spacious. Every time you are in a great hurry, you will be glad of the convenience of peering through the glass to locate items vis-à-vis the repetitive motion of opening and closing wooden doors.

Tip #5

If you are running low on your budget, forget those state-of-the-art pull-out trays. Save up for them for another year or two.

Instead, settle for adjustable sturdy wooden platforms for the time being. Why? Because after one or two years of experimentation, you will achieve the best strategic location for kitchen stuff. Experimentation is more efficient where there is flexibility.

When you’re definite about where to place what, that’s the time to buy and install those shiny, stainless steel pull-outs beauties. OR you can ask your trusty master carpenter to create pull-out boxes made of marine wood and the painter to give them a glossy vanilla finish. That’s exactly what I did. They came out just as sturdy and classy and very affordable. After 5 years of rugged use, those boxes are still around.

Tip #6

My kitchen counter top space is littered with the teapot, blender, rice cooker, and an assortment of decorations that there is hardly enough vacant space during food preparation. The breakfast table doubles as chef table for chopping and lining up ingredients and tools. I should have installed pull-out wooden trays underneath the counter top (big sigh).

Tip #7

Always line your cabinet drawers with thick plastic or cabinet liners. Spills are inevitable and create ugly, permanent stains. Clean out those shelves and cabinet drawers and replace the liners every month.

Tip #8

Always separate utensils with sharp edges and points from ladles, measuring spoons and the like. Place the dangerous items in the drawer in such a way that the sharp/cutting parts are to the back of the drawer. Your hand should make contact with the handles when searching for the right tool.

Tip #9

Always wipe the oil and condiment containers with tissue before putting them back in the drawers. Preventive cleaning saves you the precious time spent scrubbing the stains out of drawer surfaces and removing the revolting droppings of cockroaches that get attracted by the smell of fish or soy sauce.

Tip #10

Never store away wet stuff inside the cabinets. Not unless you want molds to develop and metal stuff to become rusty and useless.

Silica gels (purchased from a handyman store or collected from vitamin bottles) help to keep moisture out of food stuff and utensils. Caveat: make sure the kids and household help don’t mistake them for salt or sugar.

Final note: Despite my less-than-perfect cabinets, the kitchen came out really beautiful.

Basic Kitchenship to be continued…

Advertisement