Rating: 
Summary: sorry I ordered.
Review: From the reviews and writeup I thought I had found something interesting. Was I disappointed. Amateurish; Not well presented; Not well explained. Use of door stops, cheap materials and plugging visible screw holes is not my idea of quality. Wish I could get a refund.
Mark Walsh
Rating: 
Summary: Comments sent to the author
Review: Here are a few samples of dozens of reviews received by the author."Dear Mr. Proulx, Thank you for a very nice book: Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets. I had to put a hold in at the Orem Library just to be able to borrow the book, it is so popular. S. Jeff Cold" "Hello I found your book very easy to understand, and I feel quite confident on attempting to make my own Kitchen and Bath cabinets. I want to thank you for having your online services and email available. I feel that is the extra step that many authors do not attempt. Thanks." Frank Walker "I recently bought your book on kitchen cabinets. Great book!" C Berry "Hi Danny, What a great book you've written on kitchen cabinet building. My wife and I are remodeling our kitchen using your cabinet designs. Thank you very much!" Pete Voss "I received the book one week ago, and find it to be well written, no long useless dissertations, staight to the point and very practical. Thanks again." Craig Scott "Mr. Proulx, I just received your book in the mail yesterday afternoon and completed reading it this morning. I found it very informative. Your techniques were explained in a way that not only made me feel confident I could do the work, but also in a way that I will be able to remember the "hows and whys." Thank you!" Kevin Conway.
Rating: 
Summary: Helpful starting point for design
Review: I am a beginning cabinet making student taking Kitchen Design this semester. Because there is no text for the class and I have little experience with the subject, I decided to use Mr. Proulx's book Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets as my starting point. One of the first things I learned was the value of a good table saw. Having tried to make cases for a project at home with a basic carpenter's table saw and having used better equipment in class, I can attest to the value of his advice with respect to the matter. With respect to design I also found his information helpful in steering me clear of some of the ideas that I had originally thought would work well in my kitchen. Some of the photos of completed work in place made me realize how crowded my own plans would look in my more limited space. I had also planned on altering the measurements from standard ones, to achieve a more spacious feel for the area, but decided that I should consider those who might work in the kitchen after me and the effect on the value of my house. One of the more useful design ideas was the author's suggestion of purchased, individually adjustable feet for lower cabinets. Having made cases with toe kicks cut from the fabric of which the case was composed, I know the increased measurement, cutting and materials-not to mention frustration-it required. The adjustable feet are ideal, and I plan on using them in my kitchen project and will probably use them for a bathroom cabinet as well. Although I'm not sure I really care for the idea of using Melamine for my own projects, I can certainly see the worth of using it. The material is less costly and someone on a tight budget with lots of cabinets to replace could certainly get more done for less using it. The interiors of completed cabinets and drawers also had a very clean look to them that I liked.
Rating:
Summary: Helpful starting point for design
Review: I am a beginning cabinet making student taking Kitchen Design this semester. Because there is no text for the class and I have little experience with the subject, I decided to use Mr. Proulx's book Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets as my starting point. One of the first things I learned was the value of a good table saw. Having tried to make cases for a project at home with a basic carpenter's table saw and having used better equipment in class, I can attest to the value of his advice with respect to the matter. With respect to design I also found his information helpful in steering me clear of some of the ideas that I had originally thought would work well in my kitchen. Some of the photos of completed work in place made me realize how crowded my own plans would look in my more limited space. I had also planned on altering the measurements from standard ones, to achieve a more spacious feel for the area, but decided that I should consider those who might work in the kitchen after me and the effect on the value of my house. One of the more useful design ideas was the author's suggestion of purchased, individually adjustable feet for lower cabinets. Having made cases with toe kicks cut from the fabric of which the case was composed, I know the increased measurement, cutting and materials-not to mention frustration-it required. The adjustable feet are ideal, and I plan on using them in my kitchen project and will probably use them for a bathroom cabinet as well. Although I'm not sure I really care for the idea of using Melamine for my own projects, I can certainly see the worth of using it. The material is less costly and someone on a tight budget with lots of cabinets to replace could certainly get more done for less using it. The interiors of completed cabinets and drawers also had a very clean look to them that I liked.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: If I could give more stars, I would. I've never built anything out of wood before, and I just finished building all my kitchen and bathroom cabinets. I did not use melamine (the author is a fan of this material), as it would not be good for resale value in my particular area. I used polyurethaned birch plywood for the kitchen cabinets, and painted MDF for the bathroom cabinets. Using the author's instructions, they turned out very well, with very little hassle. The author has a no-nonsense approach to building cabinets (e.g., using screws in a butt joint, rather than time-consuming dados/rabbets). This saved me a lot of time and hassle. Since I was a beginner when I started this project, it was especially appealing. Certain other books were overwhelming to me because of the amount of space dedicated just to joinery. I've nothing against these other methods, but it was refreshing to see that they weren't actually necessary. Given the limited amount of time I had to build quality cabinets, it was the obvious choice for me. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to build his/her own cabinets, regardless of experience level. Also, I emailed the author to make sure the cabinets/cabinet legs would support my concrete countertops, and received a reply within 24 hours. A lot of authors will forget about the little people once they are published, but not this guy! (BTW, there was no support problems.)
Rating: 
Summary: book review
Review: Proulx does a great job of explaining a hybrid cabinet style--how it works and how to build it ... with an attention to the brass tacks. This book is a general guide for all kinds of cabinet making. Particularly it describes a half euro/half US cabinet style. Simple boxes with euro hinges, doors of many varieties, drawer construction, tooling, assembly and installation are all covered. It serves as an all-in-one guide to making cabinets _as_ as professional with close attention to adjustability, versatility, and modularity. Highly recommended if you are interested in how to build your own kitchen cabinets. Proulx teaches a conventionalized form of cabinet design, but it's simple and it works, which is very hard to argue with.
Rating:
Summary: One Cabinet Type, Explained well.
Review: Proulx does a great job of explaining a hybrid cabinet style--how it works and how to build it ... with an attention to the brass tacks. This book is a general guide for all kinds of cabinet making. Particularly it describes a half euro/half US cabinet style. Simple boxes with euro hinges, doors of many varieties, drawer construction, tooling, assembly and installation are all covered. It serves as an all-in-one guide to making cabinets _as_ as professional with close attention to adjustability, versatility, and modularity. Highly recommended if you are interested in how to build your own kitchen cabinets. Proulx teaches a conventionalized form of cabinet design, but it's simple and it works, which is very hard to argue with.
Rating:
Summary: Great How to Guide
Review: This book is a great how to guide to get started building kitchen cabinets. With this book and a saw you can quickly be on your way to building your own cabinets. It's not a do all end all tomb of cabinet knowledge, but it will give you all you need to build cabinets that compete with any of the prefab cabinets on the market today. A great way to using your woodworking skills and create something you will be proud of. Danny has done a great job of taking a complicated task with a lot of variables and chunked it down to simple, easy to follow steps.
Rating:
Summary: Should of read the reviews
Review: This book should be called "Build European Style particle board cabinets" or "Build My style kitchen cabinets.." I'm sure this is a great book if that's what you want to do. If not, it's pretty much useless. Doesn't make it a bad book, it just doesn't have any range for a broadly titled book.
Rating:
Summary: It worked great for me!
Review: This is a great book. I just finished building 27 face frame cabinets using 3/4" melamine and oak face frames. This book truly made the whole process simple. After receiving estimates from cabinet makers and going to major hardware stores, I decided to get this book and go for it. The lowest quote for cabinets only by a contractor was $18,000 and major hardware store $10,000 (I install). It will cost about $5,000 total for cabinets, hardware & doors doing it myself. I was a little skeptical at first but have no regrets now and would do it all over again. In fact, some of my wife's friends are already telling me what they want, and I'm not even complete with my kitchen. With the money I saved by doing it myself, I bought a new table saw, joiner and rewired my garage. I am a novice woodworker at best, with construction background. This book guides you clearly from beginning to end. I read and studied the book for a few weeks before starting (I had to wire my garage) and assembling the cabinets was easier than I thought. Cut lists are provided for several cabinet sizes (widths) along with easy to read and understand instructions and sketches that make the whole process very simple. From the information I learned from this book I was able to design and build a very big pantry that my wife loves. When I had a question or if something was't clear to me, I would email Danny and he always responded within 1 day. As with any project, it helps to have a plan and this book provides planning methods with enough flexability to make changes easily. Another advantage is you have time to make changes and incorporate them without cost. If you did this with a contractor the bill would start to grow. I would recommend having a good tablesaw (I bought a Delta Unisaw), 2 drill guns, a joiner, a planer would be nice but I did without, sander, etc. I did build a workbench 7' x 2', the same height as my table saw, on wheels for about $50. You can use this for a place for wood to land after pushing thru the saw as well as assembling cabinets.
I did look at other books before getting this one and they didn't seem as 'user friendly'. The sketches and diagrams are very helpful also.
Overall, the book was great for me, I'd recommend it to anyone who know how to swing a hammer. It was definitely money well spent.
Buy it.
Ed Jaworski edski@eagleiron.net
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