Base trim transition into built in cabinet – toe kick or no toe kick
So I’ve been working on designing a built in unit for our dining room. I’m trying to work out the base board transition into the cabinet base. Traditionally if no toe kick was present the base board would wrap around across the base cabinet. However our base boards are 8″ high so that would leave me with only a 19″ tall door for the cabinet base, which seems small to me.
On the other side if I build it with a toe kick, I could die the base board into the face frame but that just looks off to me in sketchup. Not to mention I think a toe kick would give the impression these were just kitchen cabinets re-purposed as built ins. The only option I thought could work is to continue the face frame down to the floor for free standing look seen on some cabinets with toe kicks.
Cabinet Details/Other : Cabinet is a beaded full face frame with inset door and drawer. Face frame size is 1 3/4″ wide and the top drawer is 5″. Doors will be standard shaker. Our house is 1920’s Craftsman.
Replies
I have run into this problem a few times myself...
I found the best look was as you have in your second drawing, but make the face frame on the side with the baseboard extra wide to offset the baseboard cutting into that face frame. (This also assures the if your cabinet doors are overlay the baseboard doesn't interfere with their opening.) You can even rabbet that face frame on that side to the thickness of the baseboard to create the illusion of being the same width!
Other option I thought would look good is to make the cabinet with "legs" underneath rather than a kick, offset it from the wall by the thickness of the baseboard but have the top extend to the wall. Sometimes nice to have a cabinet look like furniture... But your flooring then needs to extend underneath to the wall. Hope that makes sense without a drawing!
Good luck! Devil is in the details!!
Thanks for the reply and great info. I like the idea of “legs” and good call on leaving the face frame wider on that side. It’s really all in the details.
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