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I hate particle board/mdf. I would use plywood for the boxes
I think alder is too soft. It is more expensive than soft maple here so I would do it in maple.
If you are going to make your own bead board you can also make it on the table saw with one of those moulding heads made Craftsman. They are pretty cheap on CL.
"There is no such thing as stupid questions, just stupid people"
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SLN said:
Sorry, did not mean to get preachy, but we see a lot of "oh I did not know about that, why did I not do that" happen. 
Most of all, enjoy.
Not preachy at all- everyone keep up the GREAT tips and thank you- I'll be printing this out to put into my plans binder and have already ordered Tolpin's book Thanks again, Lawrence
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Lot of good thoughts about the actual building. All I'm gonna throw in is the word SPACE, as in where do I put all thee darn things as I build 15 more of them. I've got 6 done, and can't move around in my shop. Building a cabinet at a time sounds like the logical thing to do, but it's not. At least if Mama has an end date in mind. Building at least a wall at a time doesn't close down the entire kitchen, and still allows you to use your set ups as you go through the TS cuts. Now I'm not saying you are going to be off, but if you do a wall at a time you won't notice any cabinet to cabinet difference. One at a time and a little off can look huge. The walls alone will offer enough challenges when you get to setting them. That's all, think about space, and you have to plan accordingly by shop, or extra storage size. Your layout will no doubt differ from others here, so how they did it may not work for you. All other aspects can be done the same.
Worst thing they can do is cook ya and eat ya 
GW
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I prefer ply to melamine for cabinets, it's lighter, gives cleaner edges and IMO, gives a better look. I dadoe all of my joints and glue and screw when I assemble the box. I use full thickness for the sides and backs on base cabs and 4" slats inset into rabbets for the top. I build my uppers with 5, full thickness panels. 1 1/4" course thread flooring screws are great to hold the boxes together. I love pocket screws for assembling and attaching face frames, but I have not had the greatest success using the Kreg hand clamp; I have had much better luck using my Bessy clamps.
I don't run the base cab backs down to the floor, it makes them too hard to level, I cut the back about 1" below the bottom shelf so that the Dado supports the bottom.
I use 1" Kreg screws to attach the face frames, if you use 1 1/4" and overdrive them, they will push through the front surface. In cases where I couldn't use pocket screws to mount the face frames, I used biscuits, today I would use a domino.
Macky
The wheel of Life is like a toilet-paper roll, the closer to the end you get, the faster it goes around.
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LED light strips are da bomb for undercabinet lighting, get the highest number of led's/inch, you can always turn them down.
Macky
The wheel of Life is like a toilet-paper roll, the closer to the end you get, the faster it goes around.
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If you want to do beaded face frames, Kreg makes an excellent system. The setup has to be precise, but when you get it dialed in, the results are amazing.
Macky
The wheel of Life is like a toilet-paper roll, the closer to the end you get, the faster it goes around.
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If you are not afraid of some extra material usage you may want to look at deeper than "standard" cabinets. Wall cabinets 14"-15" deep instead of 12" offer a large increase in storage volume as well as being able to handle larger plates.
Tower cabinets (Ovens, pantries) 25 1/2" deep to allow countertops to bed into the sides without having to deal with returns.
Drawer boxes can be constructed a large number of ways. We do both a solid wood dovetail but also a simple rabitted lap joint out of baltic birch plywood. We have never had a plywood drawer box fail in 25 years.
A lot of people think Pot and pan pullouts are great but in the scheme of things a drawer is less costly and more user friendly than a pullout tray. A pullout tray has all the costs of a drawer but you still have to open a door to get into it. The only place I would use a pullout tray would be to store an oversized pot.
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I always wondered about the fascination with pull-out trays when drawers are so much better.
Carolyn
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"It's good to know, but it's better to understand." Auze Jackson
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MsNomer said:
I always wondered about the fascination with pull-out trays when drawers are so much better.
+1, the house we just moved to has the trays.....just no where near as convenient as drawers.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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I do a lot of cooking. Most kitchens today in larger homes are just too big and laid out wrong. Efficiency getting to the chop block, sink, fridge, trash and stove is key for me. A lot of counter space to the left or right of the stove and a BIG chop block area. I tried using my sil's huge kitchen- the huge island meant walking all around it to get to the fridge, around the corner to the sink, the stove had little counter space on each side, the food storage across the room-- it was just all wrong and I wore myself out just making lunch.  Efficiency first, then looks. Unless you don't even cook.
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