A classic Hoosier cabinet packs an impressive amount of kitchen storage and workspace into a single piece of furniture. This updated version keeps the vintage character of the originals while adding modern conveniences, including an appliance garage, heavy-duty pull-out tray, adjustable shelves, undermount drawer slides, and reeded-glass doors.
My fascination with Hoosier cabinets started years ago. One of the first things my lovely bride and I purchased on our staycation honeymoon was a beat-up Hoosier cabinet. It was a shadow of the fine specimen you see here, but it was a perfect fit for the apartment we had in the old, leafy part of town where we lived.
Homes and apartments of that era often had modest kitchens, which helped make Hoosier cabinets popular during the early decades of the twentieth century. These freestanding kitchen cabinets provided storage, organization, and workspace at a time when built-in kitchen cabinetry wasn't nearly as common as it is today.
For this woodworking project, we kept that traditional idea but adapted it for a modern kitchen. Hickory gives the base and upper case a warm furniture-quality appearance, while hard maple is used for the dovetailed drawers and heavy-duty pull-out tray. A tambour-door appliance garage keeps frequently used countertop appliances close at hand but hidden when they're not needed.
Traditional woodworking details round out the design. Frame-and-panel construction, mortise-and-tenon joinery, dovetailed drawers, and reeded-glass doors give the cabinet its classic character, while modern drawer slides and adjustable storage make it every bit as useful today as its predecessors were generations ago.
GOOD WOOD
Hickory was used for the base and upper case of this project. As you see in the lower photo, hard maple was the wood of choice for the tray, as well as the drawer boxes.
This version has a design feature that its predecessors lacked — heavy-duty drawer slides that mount to the underside of the tray and drawers. Another subtle touch is how the layered sides and center divider of the base eliminate the need for cleats to attach the drawer slides. Lastly, the reeded glass that’s shown off in the doors adds a vintage look to the upper portion of the project.
THE HOOSIER YOU SAY
On a related note — one colorful, almost certainly apocryphal story for the Indiana moniker “Hoosier,” is someone yelling out “whose ear?” at the end of a knife fight in a bar. Just something to think about as you head to the shop.
The appliance garage provides easy access to often-used kitchen items. When not in use, hide them away behind the tambour door.
The cabinet features storage galore — plus heavy-duty drawer slides mounted underneath allowing you to show off the dovetailed hard maple tray.
GETTING A LEG UP ON THE SIDES
The legs of this cabinet are the cornerstones of the project. Their thickness provides stable support for the base (and the upper case). Also, as you’ll see, they hold not only the rails and their panels, but the cleats and interior panels.
GLUE UP
The legs are glued up from 5⁄4 material. In the spirit of putting your best face forward, take a little time to orient the best-looking grain patterns to the front of the legs. As of late, using epoxy to glue up projects is on the rise in the shop here. Epoxy has a longer open time and is easy to clean up with lacquer thinner. It’s worth considering on those merits.
JOINERY
Once the clamps are tucked away, trim the leg blanks to their final size and head to the workbench to focus on the joinery stage. The main drawing above and the details show what you’re up against. Moving from front to back, the inside face of the front right leg has four mortises (detail ‘a’) while the front left leg has only two. These mortises house the tenons of the face frame.
Detail ‘a’ also shows the combined grooves and mortises that are on the remaining faces. This is where the rails and panels join the legs. Once you’ve decided on the orientation of the legs I suggest you mark the tops in a manner similar to what you see in detail ‘b’. Often I’ve drawn the exact layout of the grooves and mortises just to keep things in order when I get busy making sawdust.
GROOVES
I started with the grooves. To make the grooves in the legs I attached a guide fence to my plunge router base. When the grooves are complete, you can start routing the mortises. The mortises in the grooves can be a little long to the inside for better alignment of the parts. Wind this stage up by routing the solo mortises in the front legs. Then square up your efforts with a chisel.
LEGS
Notice in the main drawing that the legs are tapered on the inside faces. The tapers lighten the visual load of the base without compromising its strength. The task was done at the table saw with a tapering jig. Sand or plane the tapers smooth after the fact. The last bit of dressing on the legs is adding the roundover you see in detail ‘b’.
SIDE ASSEMBLY
The rails are next. Detail ‘c’ shows the groove centered on both boards. Use the rip fence at the table saw to make these cuts. To make the tenons, stick a sacrificial board to your fence and use the miter gauge to support the board while making the cut.
RABBETED PANELS
The last components of this layer of the side assembly are the side panels. Detail ‘b’ above shows how they fit in the grooves of the rails and legs. First you’ll need to cut the rabbet along the edge of the inside face. Then you can glue up the five pieces.
While the sides are curing in the clamps you can make the parts that you’ll attach to them. The main drawing above (and detail ‘a’) shows the right side assembly put together and the left side blown apart so you can see what’s going on inside.
It’s pretty simple, really. There are two cleats screwed to the rails and panel that you just glued up. In this instance the cleats act more as spacers, but the parts are the same size as the cleats used later to hold the bottom and top in place on the base so they’re adopted into that family.
After drilling the shank hole and countersinks in the cleats you can screw them to the rails (the middle screw fastens to the panels). Lastly, the interior panel on the left side needs a series of shelf pin holes drilled in it. Once that’s done both panels can be glued and nailed to the cleats.
FLESHING OUT THE BASE
Up next is making the front and back assemblies. The five boards that comprise the front define the three drawer openings. The large opening is for the tray and shelf that reside behind a door. As you see in the main drawing, it’s mortise and tenon joinery for these parts. The back is made of three boards and two plywood panels. Tongue-and-groove joinery is on the menu here. Let’s start up front.
MORTISES
You can adjust the guide fence on your plunge router to make the mortises required in the front stile (detail ‘c’) and rails shown in the main drawing. Or you could get out your mortising chisels and spend some time chopping at the workbench.
Next, you’ll spend a little time at the table saw cutting tenons on the ends of the rails (detail ‘a’). Before moving on to the back assembly, I glued up the front using spacers and clamping squares to ensure all the parts were properly spaced.
TONGUE & GROOVES
Making the centered grooves on the back rails and stile is a good place to start. The tongues that fit in those grooves (along with the plywood panels) are shown in detail ‘b.’ Once the plywood is cut to size, you can glue up the back assembly. Like the front, clamping squares and spacers are in order.
BRING IT ALL TOGETHER
How you choose to handle gluing the sides, front, and back together is up to you. Just make sure to use clamping squares in the corners. Also, use a tape to measure the top of the base corner to corner. If the two diagonal measurements are equal, the base is square. One last thing — to ensure there’s no twist across the base, I glanced across the top with a pair of winding sticks.
BOTTOM, DIVIDER & TOP
The parts that close up the base are next. The bottom is a piece of plywood. The divider is a structure similar to the ends. As you see in detail ‘c,' the divider is made of two divider panels that are nailed to the another pair of cleats. This assembly is screwed flush to the front and back stiles.
The top is glued up from 1"-thick hardwood boards. To get the ball rolling, start by using epoxy to bring together the boards for the top. While the glue is curing, focus on making and installing the bottom.
BOTTOMS UP
The main drawing and the box show that all it takes to prepare the bottom is to cut it to size and notch the corners. Next, turn the base upside down and lower the bottom into the shell. Let it rest on the interior panels while you install the cleats.
INTERIOR WALL
The divider is too narrow to install as a unit. To start, nail one of the interior panels to the cleats. Then screw the cleats to the front and back stiles — make sure the panel is flush with the stiles (detail ‘c’). Then nail the other interior panel in place.
Detail ‘b’ shows the location of the shelf pin holes on the face of the left interior panel. I chose to drill them now. When making the cleats for the top, drill oversized shank holes on the end cleats to allow for seasonal movement of the top.
Detail ‘a’ above shows the roundover needed on the front and side edges of the top. Once that’s done, screw the top on the base flush to the back and centered side to side.
BUILD THE MOVING PARTS
Now it’s time to add the dynamic parts of the base. The drawing above shows what’s going on on the left side of the base. There’s a door that conceals the pull-out tray that’s attached to the base with heavy-duty undermount drawer slides. There’s also an adjustable shelf to make use of the space above the tray.
MAKE A BIG DOOR
The door is a no-nonsense frame and panel door. Start by cutting the stiles and rails to size. Then you’ll make centered grooves in the four parts. Detail ‘c’ shows this. Right on the heels of that task you can tackle cutting the tongues on the ends of the rails.
I always do a test cut on a scrap before committing the cut to the real rails. To add rigidity to the door, I used a piece of 1⁄2" plywood for the panel (detail ‘c’). I buried a dado blade in a sacrificial fence that I attached to my rip fence with double-sided tape. Then it’s just a matter of cutting the rabbet around the perimeter of the panel.
While the table saw winds down, I took all the parts of the door to the workbench for a quick glueup. When the glue was cured I routed the outer edge of the door — like you see in detail ‘c.’
MAKE THE TRAY
Making the tray introduces the use of half-blind dovetails for the joinery. This joinery is just the ticket for holding together a tray that’s subject to the rigors of storing up to 75 lbs. (the maximum load of the slides) while sliding completely out of the base. This calls for the use of a dovetail jig to make the tails and pins on the appropriate parts.
After all the parts are routed, detail ‘d’ shows how to modify the tray front and sides. This detail provides clearance for lifting appliances out of the tray. Next, there’s a groove needed along the lower edge of the tray parts to hold the bottom (detail ‘c’). Before gluing up the tray there’s a notch you need to cut in the back for the drawer slide (detail ‘b’).
HIDDEN SLIDES
Let’s visit a moment about the slides I’ve been talking about. They’re made by Blum and are packaged with instructions. Also, their YouTube channel adds to the information provided with the slides. There you’ll be shown additional details about drilling pilot holes in back, and front of the tray for slides.
The next thing to do on the left side of the base is to make the shelf that’s above the tray, it’s a simple piece of plywood with a hardwood edge glued to it (detail ‘a’). The last thing to do on the left side of the base is attaching the door. (No mortise hinges hold the door in place.) Lay the base on its back and screw the door in place. With that you can turn your attention to the right side, where the drawers reside.
A STACK OF DRAWERS
No Hoosier cabinet would be complete without the signature stack of drawers you see in the drawing above. They increase in height from top to bottom and use the same drawer slides as the ones on the tray. As with the tray, cut all the parts to final size before hauling out the jig.
MORE DOVETAILS
If this is the first time you’ve used a dovetail jig, you’re going to be a pro by the time you’ve made these drawer boxes (detail ‘b’). When the jig is tucked away, cut grooves along the lower inside edges for the drawer bottoms. The grooves are the same as the ones in the tray, so cut them at the table saw. Next, cut the notches in the bottom of the back for the slides. Remember to drill the pilot holes for the slide hardware. Then you’re ready to glue up the drawer boxes.
A STACK OF SLIDES
Install the drawer slides in the cabinet using spacers to support the slides and hold them parallel to the opening. The slides screw to the sides of the base. Now you can clip the drawer boxes to the slides and install them.
FALSE FRONTS
Detail ‘a’ above shows how the false fronts are positioned on the drawer boxes. Starting from the bottom up, I used 1" shims for spacing between each drawer.
MAKE A GRAND UPPER CASE
You could stop here and have a fine base — but let’s not. After all, the upper case adds another layer of legitimate options to this kitchen ally. Glancing at the drawing above, you see on the left a tall opening that’s home to a pair of adjustable shelves. The larger cavity on the right sports more storage above and an appliance garage below. In keeping with the traditional look of a Hoosier cabinet, the sides are a frame-and-panel assembly — let’s start working there.
FRAME & PANEL
Head to the table saw and cut the stiles and rails to size. Notice in detail ‘a’ that the front stiles are narrower than their back counterparts. Later, when you glue the face frame to the case, the look will balance out.
Next on the list are centered grooves on the stiles and rails. Don’t leave the table saw just yet, now you need to cut the tongues on the rails and rabbet the edges of the plywood panels (detail ’c’). And just like that — you’re ready to glue up the sides.
After the clamps are stowed, cut the groove along the rear edge for the plywood back (detail ‘c’). Follow this up with cutting the two dadoes in the left side for the top and bottom. The right side has two dadoes as well, one for the top, the other for the fixed shelf. The box to the left shows that step being done. Detail ‘a’ shows the location of the dado in the right side.
CASE PARTS
Ripping the plywood parts (and trimming them to length) is at the top of the to-do list now. The divider has a groove along both sides for the plywood back (detail ‘c’). It also has a dado for the vertical divider (detail ‘b’).
The vertical divider has grooves for the backs as well (you probably cut that when I was yakking about the dadoes in the top). There are two dadoes in the divider also: one for the bottom and one for the fixed shelf. The last bit of table saw work is sizing the plywood backs.
GLUE UP
Glue up all the parts using clamping squares along the way. The one thing left to do is drill the shelf pin holes. The main drawing shows the configuration for the left side on the face of the plywood divider. Detail ‘a’ shows the hole layout on the right side that gets drilled in the right face of the divider.
FACE FRAME
Like the base before, the face frame of the upper case articulates the rough openings you’ve made with the sides and plywood parts. It’s the last in line of the assemblies brought to you by mortise and tenon joinery.
MORTISE & TENON
Once all the parts are sized, you’ll find yourself back at the bench laying out the mortises on the stiles and upper rail. Each vertical stile has two mortises to contend with. The middle stile’s are on opposite edges (detail ‘b’), while the end stile mortises are on the same edge. The top rail has one for the middle rail (detail ‘c’). Whether you rout or chisel the mortise is up to you. Once that’s done, you can move on to making the tenons (detail ‘c’).
Gluing up the face frame is what you do before gluing it to the case. Then you rout the roundover on the outer edges of the stiles (detail ‘d’). For the sake of rigidity, glue the back support to the plywood back (detail ‘a’). To attach the upper case to the base, use woodscrews through the bottom on the left, and pocket screws on the inside surface of the right side.
ADDING THE DOORS & TAMBOUR
You can see the home lights on the horizon as far as this project goes. Just three doors, three shelves, and a guide for the tambour door to ride in are all that’s left to do. As a warm-up, I cut the shelves to size and glued the edging on the front edges. Now we’ll focus on the doors.
MORE DOORS
Here the doors are mostly an encore of what you made earlier. I say mostly because, as you see in the drawing above, the small doors contain glass. That’s a bit off the previous path, but nothing you can’t handle. So let’s get to ripping and sizing the stiles and rails. Detail ‘c’ shows the centered groove that you’ll cut in all the parts.
When the grooves are done, adjust the landscape of your table saw to cut the tongues on the ends of the rails. As always, a test cut and fit of the tongues is in order. The plywood panel that resides in the tall door needs a little dressing. Detail ‘c’ shows the rabbet you need to cut around the inside edge of the panel. With that task done — you can glue up all three doors.
MAKE ROOM FOR GLASS
Detail ‘a’ above shows how we accommodated the glass in the two smaller doors. Just use a rabbeting bit in your router to remove the back edge, then square up the corners. As for making the stops, the size of glass you have will ultimately determine that. I’m always a little nervous when installing the stops. I pre-drill a slightly oversized hole and carefully install brad nails.
TAMBOUR DOOR
The tambour door that covers the appliance garage is the final piece of the puzzle. You can certainly make your own tambour door by cutting and assembling the individual slats, but doing so adds quite a bit of time to an already substantial project. For this cabinet, we decided to save some shop time and purchase a ready-made tambour door from Woodworker’s Hardware.
The purchased tambour provides the traditional roll-top look that fits the character of a Hoosier cabinet while making this part of the build much simpler. Once installed, the door slides out of the way for easy access to small appliances and rolls closed to keep them hidden when they’re not in use.
