Kitchen Island Close-in is Done (Finally)

[Mathew Nedeljko]

A couple of months ago I embarked upon a project to add some additional storage to our kitchen. The idea was to close in the one side of the island in the kitchen which was originally intended for stools, but in reality was nothing more than a drop off area for the kids school bags. (Sorry, no before pics available:o)

Since the island is in a highly visible area, I tried to match the design of the existing maple cabinetry as closely as possible.

I posted some in progress pictures of the doors in this thread earlier...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=13153

I finally got the project done over the holidays.

The finish is 2 coats of General Finish "Natural" Water based stain, followed by a coat of General Finish "Shaker Maple" water based stain, and topped with two coats of General Finish Arm-R-Seal.

Here's how it looks.

LOML is quite happy, she's already got it full of cookbooks! :)

[mike lucas]

As long as she thinks it's done, then it's done;)
Looks pretty good to me, and your wife seams happy, so all is good!:)

[Jim Becker]

Very nice, Matthew! 'Looks like it just grew there!! So...what's inside? Just the books or other storage, too?

[Jason Tuinstra]

Looks great. Before I even read the post, my assumption was that you built the whole project - that's how good the match is! I'm sure you wife is delighted to have some more storage. Job well done!

[Jerry Olexa]

Mathew Very nice job... Looks like it all is one new unit...Your wife will renew your contract for another year...Good work!

[Bruce Page]

Mathew, that is beautiful! I wish our kitchen was large enough for an island - I would copy yours!

[Sean Hughes]

Matthew,


Great job!!! I'm getting some designs together to do some cabinetry in my kitchen to match the existing cabits, any suggestions? Also, any tips on sanding the end grains of the panels to get that "smooth as glass" finish?

Thanks,

Sean

[Mathew Nedeljko]

Thanks for all the encouraging comments!

Jim, I'll try and take a picture of the inside of the island in the next couple of days (my digital camera is on the blink :( ). I actually used 1/2" Maple ply for the shelves and divider, and the sheet that I pulled out of the rack at Paxton's had some really nice figure too it. The guy at the store thought I was nuts buying such a nice sheet of ply for the inside of a cabinet, but heh, it makes me feel good knowing the quality of materials is in my work, especially when I live with it every day :) .


Sean, I find that patience is the key to building raised panel doors that look good. I'm really carful when raising the panels on the router table. I take very light successive passes, an make sure that you start by going across the endgrain first, then work around the other edges to prevent tearout in the corners. Also make sure that you make the pass at a reasonable speed in an even fluid motion, I find any bumps or stops along the way yeild a burn or a dimple that needs a successive cut to remove. I know other folks use a power feeder on their router table, and I think that would be ideal, since I don't have one of those I just try to be careful.:)

When it comes to finishing, I find it easier to pre-finish the panel through the stain stage prior to glue up of the entire door. I save the finish sanding on the frame until I have the door assembled and the door edge profiles routed. I then stain the remaining parts of the door and apply a couple of coats of Arm-R-Seal.
I drill the 35mm holes for the blum hinges last, and I make sure that I am very careful about marking the locations for the hardware. The last thing you want to do is drill the holes for the hinges and realize that you drilled em on the wrong side, now your door is hanging upside down, DAMKHIT:o