KITCHEN // removing cabinets

Welcome back! 

Obviously, as soon as we moved into our house I had a to-do list a mile long. I wanted to do EVERYTHING as soon as we unlocked the door for the first time. Here we are, over a year later, with a to-do list only a quarter of a mile long :) 
 
Our first huge project was the kitchen. I knew if we put our dishes away without doing our kitchen renovation first...it would never, ever happen. So! It became my top priority and the first step was to remove the cabinets.

If you haven't been following along, you should know that I have started a series on updating my kitchen. Find the original post by clicking HERE! 
 
Domestic Imperfection gave me the confidence to actually do this. Luckily, my cabinets don’t involve any corners, so it was actually really easy. I say that...It was easy because I had lots of laborers helping to remove them. Please do not try to remove or reinstall your cabinets by yourself. You’ll undoubtedly break something; either yourself or your cabinets.

BEFORE

AFTER

HOW I DID IT

STEP ONE:
take off all the doors, and all the shelves. This will help in the next phase of the renovation too (painting). 

STEP TWO:
locate the four screws holding your cabinets to the wall (yep. There are only 4 tiny screws. Got fine china? get a china cabinet). Mine were on the inside of my cabinets--Domestic Imperfection’s screws were on the outside. 
 
STEP THREE:
it’s really hard. Unscrew. The. Screws. Definitely have someone under the cabinet to hold the weight as you unscrew, but literally...that is it. We used a drill. It’d take forever with a regular screwdriver. I’m sure some fancier cabinets are caulked around the edges, or have paint built up against the wall that might make it harder to actually pull the cabinet from the wall. If that's the case for you, I suggest sliding a putty knife down the edge to "cut" through the paint or caulk. I didn't have this problem at all. 
 
STEP FOUR:
​Don’t. Lose. The. Screws. I put all of mind in a little coffee cup inside each cabinet. ​

UP NEXT: ​painting

PART 2: Raising Cabinets

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