Kitchen nearly complete

[Brett Robson]

Hey guys,

Though I'd share some pictures of my new little kitchen. It took me nearly a year to complete as I was building the cabinets in my free time.

My shop is small so I had to build each cabinet one by one and then install each one as I didn't have the room to build and stage them in more of a production fashion.

The cabinets are white ash with 3/4" birch ply carcasses. As was doing this remodel on a shoestring budget, I didn't have the financial room for the fancy self-closing slides and had to use the more basic full-extension ball bearing type. I stained them first with GF's Rosewood water based stain, then a coat of GF's medium-brown die stain over that, finally topcoating with about 6 coats of Arm-R-Seal in semi-gloss.

It's a little difficult to tell with the dark finish, but I bookmatched the door panels on all the doors. Obviously they're full inset doors. The base cabinets have slide out trays, which if I had it to do over, I'd have gone with all drawers on the bottom. I still have yet to install some manner of backsplash and the window sill.

The corner drawer unit was fun to build. I saw one similar on display at Lowes and realized I had to build one! :)

All said and done, the new cabinets, counter tops and floor set me back about $3500. Not bad when compared to the cost of purchasing similar cabinets!

[Ed Morgano]

Brett,
That turned out beautiful. I love the corner drawers. Looks like you really end up with a lot of drawer space with that long of a drawer. I've seen the lazy susan corners but never drawers....very unusual.

[Von Bickley]

Great looking kitchen and cabinets...... :)

[Van Huskey]

Gorgeous, love the corner drawers!

[Dave MacArthur]

Great looking kitchen, cabinets, tile, stain color all go together nicely! Well done.

[Jeff Monson]

very nice Brett, I like the dark finish, goes well with the rest of the kitchen, the corner drawers are really neat also.

[Sam Layton]

Brett,

Your kitchen turned out great. I also like the corner drawers. They really worked out good.

I just finished staining my kitchen with GF's as well. I will be applying the Arm-R-Seal in a few days. How did you apply yours, and what was your sanding schedule?

Thank you, Sam

[Craig D Peltier]

Nice job.
About those corner draws, I was going to build them and had a couple of other builders tell me there a waste of space. You lose so much room on both sides. There nice looking though!
I just finished one corner cab that has 170 degree hinges on one door, then bi folds on the other corner door, so it bifolded an then back 170 degrees. It works very nicely to get all you need inside , but not as easy as pullout draws.

[Paul Murphy]

Very nice! I like how everything works together, and how you managed a large project in a small shop.

[Brett Robson]

Thanks for all the kind words guys!


Brett,

Your kitchen turned out great. I also like the corner drawers. They really worked out good.

I just finished staining my kitchen with GF's as well. I will be applying the Arm-R-Seal in a few days. How did you apply yours, and what was your sanding schedule?

Thank you, Sam Sam, I applied both stains with a foam brush. After the Rosewood stain, I had to rub out the finish with a damp rag to achieve the desired color. Those GF water based stains are somewhat thick and it went on too dark without wiping some away.

I initially wiped the bare wood with a wet sponge to raise the grain, then sanded it smooth with some 220. I didn't have to sand until after the second coat of the Arm-R-Seal, which I lightly sanded smooth with some wet/dry 600. I repeated with the 600 in between all coats. It sure took a while, but it worked really well in the end!




Nice job.
About those corner draws, I was going to build them and had a couple of other builders tell me there a waste of space. You lose so much room on both sides. Craig, I thought the same as well, but in actuality, I really didn't loose enough space to matter. I didn't like any of the usual options for the corners, the lazy susans or pull-out trays that slide laterally into the corners, as I didn't want anything that would require me to reach back into the corner.

The dead space is basically two pie-wedge shapes on either side of the drawers, which on mine at least, terminate at about ten inches wide at the back of the cabinet. I decided I was willing to sacrifice that small amount of space for the convenience the drawers add!

[Sam Layton]

Thanks Brett for the info. When you applied the A-R-S did you wipe it on, or use a foam brush?

I will be building my master bath vanity soon. It will be L shaped as your kitchen. I like your corner drawers, and I do not like the lazy susan idea. I think I will use your corner drawer idea.

Thanks again, Sam

[Carl Babel]

Brett,

You worked some fine magic - your $3500 came out looking like $35,000!

Like the others, I am impressed with the corner drawers. I do have a question - what kind of joinery did you use on the drawer faces (/sub-faces)?

[Dave Gaul]

Brett,

You worked some fine magic - your $3500 came out looking like $35,000!


+1 on that! $3500 is a steal for what you created. Absolutely beautiful man!

+1 on the corner drawers... LOML hates lazy susans... gonna have to keep this idea in mind.

Thanks for sharing.

[Brett Robson]

Thanks Brett for the info. When you applied the A-R-S did you wipe it on, or use a foam brush?
Sam, I wiped it on with a piece of cotton cloth.



Brett,

You worked some fine magic - your $3500 came out looking like $35,000!

Like the others, I am impressed with the corner drawers. I do have a question - what kind of joinery did you use on the drawer faces (/sub-faces)?Carl, For the joinery, I used all sorts! The sub faces are joined by a 1/4" box joint to form the 90 degree angle. I attached the sub-front to the sides initially with glue and some brad nails, nailed from the front as to be hidden by the finish face. After the glue had set, I glued in some triangular blocks in the inside corners to reinforce the joint, then drilled and inserted two dowel pins horizontally through the sides/blocks/sub faces to lock the whole thing together.

The finish face pieces are just a but joint with a couple biscuits. I drilled the screw holes through the above mentioned triangular blocks to attach the finish face to the sub face.

Does that make sense? :)

I figured this would make a stronger joint than the ones I had examined at Lowes, which were just entirely face nailed together. They looked really sloppy I thought.

[gary Zimmel]

Beautiful job on the kitchen Brett.
I too really like the drawers in that corner cabinet drawers.

[Bob Hallowell]

Very nice. I am just finishing up my kitchen and I see we used the same appliances

Bob

[Sam Layton]

Brett,

Thanks for the information. I was hoping you had a different way of applying the A-R-S. I have applied it with an old t-shirt. Slow process for a large project.

Thanks again, Sam

[Brett Robson]

Sam,

It sure was a time consuming process, especially with all the sanding and recoating. I suppose it didn't feel that bad for me as it might have as I was building and finishing each cabinet one by one as opposed to trying to finish all of them at once.

Even so, after about the 14th cabinet though, I was pretty sick of staining, sanding and finishing!

[Sam Layton]

Brett,

I know what you mean. I don't mind the finishing so much, it is just the sanding I don't like. It seems like I have spent half of my life sanding...

I built and installed all prior to finishing. I have them stained, and now for the finish...

Sam

[Carl Babel]

Carl, For the joinery, I used all sorts! The sub faces are joined by a 1/4" box joint to form the 90 degree angle. I attached the sub-front to the sides initially with glue and some brad nails, nailed from the front as to be hidden by the finish face. After the glue had set, I glued in some triangular blocks in the inside corners to reinforce the joint, then drilled and inserted two dowel pins horizontally through the sides/blocks/sub faces to lock the whole thing together.

The finish face pieces are just a but joint with a couple biscuits. I drilled the screw holes through the above mentioned triangular blocks to attach the finish face to the sub face.

Does that make sense? :)

I figured this would make a stronger joint than the ones I had examined at Lowes, which were just entirely face nailed together. They looked really sloppy I thought.

Brett, great explanation! That makes it completely clear, thanks. Sounds very well engineered, the drawers should hold up to anything that you care to load into them.