Cabinets and Armholes

Reinforcing the cabinet cubbies

If your cabinets were made with just a nail gun they are going to come undone at some point. Guests pressing on the backs of the cabinets will push the nails right out. You can use L brackets to reinforce both the inside panels and to attach the cubbies to the front piece of the cabinet. See the images below for examples of reinforcement.

NOTE: When reinforcing these cabinets, you want to make sure that no screws or nails are sticking out and are completely flush with the surface. If you have an abundance of screw holes or nail holes, we recommend filling those holes and repainting the area to avoid things like splinters or an unfinished appearance.

Reinforcing or replacing the armhole covers

Replacing these is very dependent on how your cabinet was built and what kind of arm hole covers you are using.

For the foam version:

Take off the front of the cabinet
- Easier said than done right? This differs from cabinet to cabinet. You might have just a section that can be removed or the entire cabinet could be one piece. Regardless you need to get the front piece off since we will be attaching things to the backside of it.
- If you have added any pieces of wood or L brackets to reinforce these cubbies you will have to undo that to remove the cubbies again.
If there is an old foam pad to remove, just rip it out now. It might leave some corners or staples behind. These can be removed with a flathead screw driver or pliers to leverage them out.
For each armhole, cut a square of replacement foam. It does not need to be an exact fit to the inside cubbies but it should be about an inch wider than the hole on any side.
Place the foam over the hole
In each corner, using a staple gun, staple firmly. The foam will curl a bit in the corners around where you put it. That is fine as long as long as the arm hole is still covered
From the front of the cabinet now - using a knife cut a + shape in the center of the foam large enough to reach through.

For the rubber version:

These can be attached from the outside, huzzah! NOTE: If they cannot be reattached from the outside, and are instead attached from the inside, you should be able to apply the above instructions for the foam armholes instead.
Remove your old armhole cover(s).
Place the rubber cover over the hole and screw into place.
For this one, we just have to be careful not to leave any sharp edges. Consider using bolts with nuts and washers instead of screws. If you use screws that are too long, dull the ends of them so that they wont scratch people flailing around in the armholes.