How to Install Upper Cabinets

With an extra pair of hands, you can hang an upper cabinet in your kitchen with moderate ease.

You can find attractive, good quality stock cabinets at home improvement centers. Purchasing these prefabricated cabinets and hanging them yourself will save you a significant amount of money over a custom or semi-custom cabinet installation. The base cabinets are relatively simple to install. The floor provides support for the base cabinet, meaning you simply attach the cabinet to the wall to keep it from sliding. The upper cabinets are a little trickier. You can get the job done with the correct planning.

Things You'll Need

• Stud finder
• Tape measure
• 2-inch by 4-inch lumber
• Deck screws
• Drill
• Mounting screws
• Spackling compound

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Instructions

1. Locate the studs along the wall where the upper cabinets will be hung. Mark each stud's spot with a pencil mark.

2. Measure from the base cabinet 19½ inches and draw a line on the wall. This will be the bottom of your upper cabinet.

3. Install a piece of 2-inch by 4-inch lumber along the drawn line to serve as a ledger board. Place the top of the ledger board along the line. Drill a deck screw through the board into the wall. The ledger board will support the cabinet's weight.

4. Measure and mark the spots along the back of the cabinet that will meet a stud. Pre-drill a hole through these marks. Drill holes along the cabinet's bottom hanging rail and top hanging rail.

5. Place the upper cabinet on the wall, with the cabinet's bottom edge resting on the ledger board.

6. Attach the cabinet to the wall from the inside of the cabinet. Drive a screw through the pre-drilled holes in the mounting rails and into a wall stud. Secure the top and the bottom of the cabinet with deck screws.

7. Remove the ledger boards. Patch the holes in the wall with spackling compound.

Tips & Warnings

• Always have a friend help you install upper cabinets. One person will support the weight of the cabinet while the other secures it to the wall.

References

• Workbench Magazine: Hanging Upper Cabinets