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Thread: Kitchen Rehab - Almost Done

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    9,599

    Kitchen Rehab - Almost Done

    After lots of interruptions and diversions my kitchen rehab is essentially done. I built the original kitchen about 25 years ago. It looked like this:



    Maple veneer plywood with solid maple stiles for the doors and drawer fronts, ceramic tile floor. The floor tile had several cracks and the maple veneer was split and puckered just about everywhere. But most of all I was just tired of brown. So now it looks like this:





    I changed the floor to bamboo, hated it, so I tore it out and installed Pergo laminate which goes better color wise (my bad on the bamboo choice) and is far easier to keep clean. The bamboo showed every speak of dust and cat paw tracks, and was impossible to spot clean w/o leaving a ring. The window frames got the red treatment, too, which was a bit of an undertaking but the natural pine stuck out like a sore thumb so it had to go. The door and drawer fronts are shop sawn ash veneer over composite plywood, with solid ash stiles. I reused the maple moldings by stripping and sanding them and then finished them to match the new look. The red finish was a cocktail of Transtint dyes in Sealcoat shellac followed by GF Enduro Clear Poly Satin topcoats. The gray on the cabinets is Lenmar's Duralaq custom tinted at my local BM; two coats of that followed by a coat of Enduro Clear Poly for improved durability. The darker gray on the toe kicks and fridge is BM Advance.

    At the other end of the kitchen I made a new passage door to the basement, using the same style as the cabinet doors.



    It replaces the hollow core oak door that was there. Same thing for the pocket door to the half bath only that one is white. The door to the attached garage still needs to be changed, so that's why I said the project "almost done".

    The other end of the kitchen was originally intended to be a breakfast area, but quickly morphed into a computer work space. We decided there was plenty of red in the rest of the kitchen so it's basic white with the gray carried over from the fridge and basement doors.



    The chairs need some updating and the sliding door needs to be painted to get rid of the natural pine, too; another "almost done". The white doors and drawer fronts are PliumaPly (great stuff) with maple stiles, finished with Duralaq white pigmented lacquer tinted by BM to SW's ProClassic white. Strange, huh, why not just use ProClassic? Because ProClassic doesn't spray anywhere near as nice as Duralaq with my equipment. That big pantry cabinet on the left is the original; no way I could take it out to change/refinish that exposed side. So I finished it in place with ProClassic thinned with water and Extender, applied with a foam roller and it came out very nice. The toe kicks and molding are ProClassic, too. The color match with the Duralaq is perfect to my eyes.

    I guess it took about 18 months start to finish with lots of interruptions from other projects.

    John

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    N.E, Ohio
    Posts
    3,026
    That is beautiful. You are a awesome woodworker, great choices of finishes. Your attention to detail and design is impeckable.
    George

    Making sawdust regularly, occasionally a project is completed.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Cincinnati, OH
    Posts
    924
    I love the look - very up-to-date. Your craftsmanship is easily seen as well as your eye for design. Thanks for sharing.
    Rustic? Well, no. That was not my intention!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Lewiston, Idaho
    Posts
    28,490
    Well done John! I do like the new colors!
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    9,599
    Thanks guys. Yes, the colors are a love it or hate it thing. I've had friends come in and just gush about it; others not say a word. That's fine; my wife and I both like it and that's all that matters. Like I said in the OP I was just tired of brown and it's sure not brown now.

    As you probably noticed, the only thing I changed was the door and drawer fronts and the wall and fridge panels and trim work. The cabinets and drawer boxes are the original and are still in great shape after 25 years. I peeled off the edge banding and replaced it with ash and then finished those pieces in place by hand, which wasn't nearly as hard to do as I thought it might be. On the white cabinets I just sanded the original maple edge banding and painted it white. I changed some of the hinges but reused some, too. The drawer slides are the original Blum ones, too. My wife is not a fan of soft close. I am, but she's the one using the kitchen the most so I left it as she likes.

    The Ventahood range hood was an interesting story. They have an off centered vent. I custom built the cabinet above it to accommodate how it's configured. As far as I can tell they are the only company that has that off centered vent or at least one in that specific location. So when I looked for new SS hoods nothing would work without completely rebuilding that upper cabinet and then redoing the ductwork to the roof. So then I thought I'd just buy the identical Ventahood in SS, and I could have for something like $1200. So that's when I thought about painting it. It took a whole day to clean the grease off well enough to paint it, but for the princely sum of $15 for two cans of Rustoleum metallic spray paint it looks great.

    John

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    SE Michigan
    Posts
    3,222
    Looks great, John. Bold, but very well color coordinated. That’s a lot of nice work.

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