The homeowner at my Eastwood kitchen project (these posts) installed an over-the-range microwave where an existing cabinet had been. The result was that there was an awkward space above it that wasn’t very useful for much. He wanted me to make it into a space to hold wine bottles.
Sure, why not?
Basically, I just needed to add some kind of dividers to make ‘cubby holes’ for the wine bottles. The trick with this space was that I would have limited access in the cabinet. Here’s the creative solution I came up with:
I ripped down a piece of cabinet/stain-grade plywood into strips that were the exact height of the opening. On the front I could get a couple brads in each of them to hold them in place, but on the back I wouldn’t have access. The answer was to put some spacer blocks between each board along the back. They will keep the divider boards in the right spot and I could build the entire thing before setting it into the hole.
Once it was built I gave it a quick finish with leftover Waterlox from the butcher block that we used. (see this post). This gave the boards a natural color that matched the insides of the rest of the cabinets pretty well.
After some drying time, I slid the contraption into the hole above the microwave. I got it in position and nailed some face boards across the end of each divider. These would be caulked/painted to match the cabinets and hide the end grain on the divider boards.
I was fairly happy with the results. Now for the wine…
-Peter
