Home Office - lots of pics

[Gail O'Rourke]

I just finished this customer today. A big job, the painting was very time consuming but other than a few bumps in the road I am incredibly pleased with the result.

All of the pieces fit into a small 8 x 10 room with high ceilings and big windows...take a look

If you are standing at the door, you look at the side of the corner unit, and then on the right of the door is the desk.

[Gail O'Rourke]

Here are more of the desk photos and the display above the desk for photos

(One file drawer and 2 banks of 4 drawers each.)

[Gail O'Rourke]

Here is a funky pop up shelf that is under the window, he wanted it to spread plans out on when he was working at the desk...

Thanks for looking.
Gail

[Dan Forman]

That's a sweet suite of furniture there! You should be pleased with the result.

Dan

[John Scane]

Nice work....and nice paint job.

Hey where's america's hometown ?

[Michael Stafford]

Some folks sure do nice work and I would say you are one of them. Very nice, very nice indeed!!! :)

[Mark Singer]

Gail,

Another winner....Beautiful!!

[Richard Wolf]

Nice job, well done. Good thinking with the piano hinge.

Richard

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful job Gail. Fantastic paint job.


Bernie

[Chris Padilla]

Nice job! Painting, while time-consuming, can hide a lot of mistakes! :) :) :)

[Jason Tuinstra]

Hey, they look great! I'm sure the customer is going to be very satisfied with the new office. There's nothing I like more than lots of doors to hide my big mess. :p :D I really like how the white cabinets fit into the overall look of the room. Their color on the walls really makes the furniture stand out all the more. Good job.

[Joe Unni]

Beautiful stuff!!

Question - Is the desk just notched around the baseboard heat? And how does that effect/affect (I never know which) heat flow?

I'm in the process of making a kitchen unit for some folks and more of the baseboard would be covered by the cabinetry so I decided to keep the bottom open.

Your work is very beautiful!

-joe

[Michael Pfau]

Nice job Gail!! I am sure your customer is very pleased. I hate to paint! The white makes the whole room look larger...again..nice job!!

[Gail O'Rourke]

Thanks everyone...the next large project I have is also paint...so I have been thinking about how I will do it without the doubling of all the efforts that I made...

I may wait to paint a lot of it on site after install...it will mean more days of travelling to installations but less time painting.

I will let you know, I am starting that project on Monday.

[Keith Burns]

Can't add much to whats already been said. Fantistic job !!

[Alan Turner]

Nice job. How many days do you have in it? Were that my job, I would sub out the finishing, and spec 2 coats of Cat. varnish on top of the color, and just adjust the price accordingly. I find that on some work, it is cheaper to have it finished than to finish it myself, and paint is in that category for me. Very tidy job.

[Mike Alagna]

Gail, They look great. That is a lot of cabinetry for a small room and it you made it all look great. I like the use of the drawer for the shelf support. Did you end up spraying all the pieces of did you paint by hand. Either way the finish looks great.

[Corey Hallagan]

Excellent job Gail. Looks like you took alot of time and really made the whole project work down to the drawer lining up heigth wise to the pop up table. Finish looks very good as well.

Corey

[Gail O'Rourke]

Corey, I can't take credit for that, our original idea was a drawer but I changed it to make a leg instead, then when I installed it, the drawer worked perfect...sometimes it comes together, gotta love that.

Also, in response to how long... about 100-125 hours, hand brushed paint (took too long) - poplar, birch and MDF counters.

thanks everyone.

[Shelley Bolster]

You go girl!! :p Great job Gail, I am sure they are please as could be with it. They are beautiful! So, if you don't mind my asking, how was your estimate.....close or out to lunch?? Personally, that is the hardest part of a large job - figuring in all the cost factors right down to the screws, glue and sandpaper to the approximate # of hours. I hope you were as happy with the final tally as you customer was with their office.

[David Pettibone]

Beautious work Gail. How much scribing did you have to do to get the long top to fit so tightly to the wall? Or were the drywall gods with you, because they're never with me!!! :eek: Those are nice pieces you've done, great job. David

[John Keane]

Congratulations on a very nice job.

[John Lucas]

Great work Gail. You get more work done than anyone I know. And it is all good work. Time to get that spray booth started.

[Bill Fields]

Gail:


Since there is "paint" in every post, why not tell us about the painting--spray/brush/roll--sanding. Also, what sort of paint? Enamel/gloss/semi-gloss?

Nice custom job!

Bill Fields

[Paul B. Cresti]

Gail,
Very nice work. So do tell what kind of joinery did you use on the panels? Where they inset into dados? M & T joints on the doors?

[Steve Stube]

And the file drawers open, right? It really does look a little tight in the corner what with the window sill and flip up desktop. I'll assume they do unless I hear a loud scream.

[Gail O'Rourke]

Bill, the paint was Ben Moore semi gloss over a pva primer...I rolled all the cases with a no nap roller and then brushed out, 2 coats of paint over primer, the frames are with a hand brush. Most shelves, other than corner unit are adjustable.

Paul the doors are standard style and rail (poplar)with nice pretty profile. I used ash for the panels (1/4" ply) because the grain does show a little through the paint and is a nice detail.

Steve, there are 2 filler boards on either side of the file cabinet so yes it does open.
With little to enough clearence on either side.

David, the corner unit I had to scribe the top alot, then when I put on the desk top, voila, it didn't need any scribing. Just some caulking along the wall. perfect fit.

Shelley, the costs were close to my estimate. I came in high on my price, so my costs were about 1/3 of the total project.

Alan, please tell me what Cat Varnish is....

Thanks all.

[Jason Roehl]

Gail, "Cat Varnish" would be short for "catalyzed varnish". There are quite a few different renditions of it, including "pre-catalyzed" versions, but the bottom line is that they all pretty much cure very quickly and get hard very quickly. Many cabinet shops will use a pre-cat lacquer. Does that help?

Oh, yeah, that looks pretty good, too! For brushed and rolled, especially!

[Dale Rodabaugh]

Only thing I can say is a SUPER FINE JOB.:cool: :eek: :cool:

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Looks very nice Gail! I sure hate to paint, but I do like it when it's finished and looking great! I like the pop up shelf idea....I may have to do one of those in my shop!

[Sam Blasco]

Nice work, Gail. I would recommend you get yourself an HVLP turbine if you are going to do more of this type of thing. It will cut your finish time by a 2/3, and increase the quality of the finish. Target coatings make some great water based products for spraying. A Cat (catalyzed) Varnish is a very durable top coat. I tend to use it on table tops and wet areas. I like regular lacquer for most other stuff -- cheaper, and I can pour what I don't use back in the bottle. With catalyzed finishes you have to discard what you don't use. But this is for another thread.
Great work, keep it coming.

[Pete Harbin]

Nice work Gail. It's pretty cool that you were given the whole room to tie together. I bet that was fun to design for. Everything looks really sharp.

Pete

[Gail O'Rourke]

You have all been so thoughtful in your comments, so I have to post the oops...

See the door hitting the cabinet? Well, once the customer saw this they were PLEASED - because then the little twins couldn't crush each other behind the door...a problem lately, so I wasn't able to fix it (only about 2" overlap)....I talked with them several times and they insisted to leave it...

me, well, I will always have the bad feeling about it. I made it clear that I would come at any point and rectify the situation should their needs change.

So, I had to come clean...

[Jim Becker]

Excellent, Gail!

[Mike Vermeil]

Gail,

I've been painting a lot of cabinetry lately, and IMHO (don't you hate those internet forum abreviations?) spraying is the ONLY way to go. Once I finally invested in a gun, I kicked, kicked, and then kicked myself again for not buying one years ago! The time is cut by at least 2/3's, and the quality of finish is much better. On top of that, you'll be shocked by how easy it is. Do read up a little on spraying basics before your first job however.

There's been much discussion on SMC about this HVLP conversion gun, and so far everything has been very positive, including the price. I've sprayed all sorts of finishes with it, and all have sprayed extremely well. It's not an industrial quality gun, and I don't know how long it will hold up under constant use, but for $129 it's a great way to get started.

http://www.gleempaint.com/hvcongunnew.html

Hope this helps.

[Peter Pedisich]

Gail,

Looks great! I'm gonna have to save this thread because I plan on something similar. Thanks for sharing the pics!!:)

Pete

[Jules Dominguez]

It's all very attractive, as well as efficient use of space, and will make the office pleasant to work in. Really nice job.

[Alan Turner]

GAil,
It is my understanding that catalized varnish is the defualt top coat on nearly all kitchen cabinets becuase of its durability and washability. It has no solvents once dried. If you want to take it off, get out the sandpaper. Dries in about 20-30 minutes, full hard in 24 hours, if I am not mistaken. When I need that done, I send it out to a finisher. It is a 2 part product that much be mixed very carefully.

[Dan Mages]

Excellent job!! It has a nice, clean look to it. Do you plan on adding hardware to the doors and drawers?

Dan

[Marc Spagnuolo]

very nice Gail. Dont let my wife see that!! She will have me redoing the office by next weekend!! :)

[Les Spencer]

Gail,

Very nice.:D That took alot of planning. :cool: Do you use a software program for designing?