kitchen cabinet make over project

[MR. evil]

I use Connecticut Wood Group in Enfield CT 860-253-0444
www.cwghardwoodoutlet.com

 

[MR. evil]

I would stay away from Dave Harris....

Really? That shop does awsome millwork and casework. I love it when they are on any of my projects at work.

 

[MR. evil]

Its been a while since I posted anything on my kitchen face lift project. Its coming along really nice, but its been a lot of work and I have a lot more to go.


Picture of the main cabinet wall

The upper and base cabinets to the far left I made…for the most part. This is where the refrigerator used to be, and it really blocked off access to the main hallway. The uppers I made from scratch, the doors have wood frames, but will have glass panels different from the rest of the doors. We are going to display pottery and stuff in here. The base cabinets are ready-to assemble cabinets from HD. Only I put them together with wood glue and biscuits, not the crap screws they came with. Still need to make the face frame for these base cabinets and some drawers / slide out shelves for pots, pans, ect…. I went with ready-to-assemble cabinets instead of building custom because each cabinet cost less then the materials for me to make them. But the way I put them together is almost as good as custom would have been. I have already made the doors and drawer fronts for these cabinets, just need some face frames to attach them to. Also need to replace the range hood with a stainless steel one and replace the fugly light fixture with a nice ceiling fan to match the other one in the kitchen,

Adjacent wall

All the base cabinet doors are made, just need to hang them and sand / prime the base cabinets. Also going to build a custom base cabinet between the dish washer and fridge to hide the trash bin.


Close up

Trim close up

I took my time with the trim…coping cuts really suck BTW. Still need to caulk some small gaps before I paint.


My current plan it to hire a painter to spray all the doors and drawer front, while I paint the cabinets. Still working on finding a painter. Right now all the white is just a high grade primer.

 

[Trekchick]

that is sharp!
You have a good eye for this.

 

[MR. evil]

that is sharp!
You have a good eye for this.

Thanks

Maybe I should look into designing professionally. I wonder if I’m qualified to be a kitchen designer at HomeDepot or Lowes .

If I had a larger budget that would allow me to move plumbing fixtures and major appliances it would be much better. This whole endeavor is pretty much an eye wash job with a few improvement just to get us through the next couple of years until Randi is finished with school. Then this all gets gutted, and the real work starts.

When the Cabinets are done we are going to tile the backspash and I am also going to try and make my own concrete counter tops. Luckily I train with a guy that owns a concrete counter company and has given me lots of advise and offered to help.

 

[o3jeff]

If you want more practice, let me know.

Looks good!

 

[tjf67]

Looks great.

 

[MR. evil]

If you want more practice, let me know.

Looks good!

Practice doing what?

 

[o3jeff]

Practice doing what?

Making cabinets

 

[MR. evil]

Making cabinets

I am getting pretty good at that part. Already designing a new bathroom vanity that will be all solid / stain grade wood. Thinking natural cherry.

 

[ctenidae]

When the Cabinets are done we are going to tile the backspash and I am also going to try and make my own concrete counter tops. Luckily I train with a guy that owns a concrete counter company and has given me lots of advise and offered to help.

I poured our concrete countertops myself. Labor intensive, messy, and touchy, but for a basic poured-in-place U with no fancy curves, it was totally doable. I would highly recommend renting a mixer though- hand mixing 20 bags of concrete was a royal pain, and by the time you get the last bag mixed the first bag has started to set.

Cabinets look good- nice job on the molding. I hate working with that stuff- I just can't think in compound angles, for some reason.

 

[MR. evil]

I poured our concrete countertops myself. Labor intensive, messy, and touchy, but for a basic poured-in-place U with no fancy curves, it was totally doable. I would highly recommend renting a mixer though- hand mixing 20 bags of concrete was a royal pain, and by the time you get the last bag mixed the first bag has started to set.

Cabinets look good- nice job on the molding. I hate working with that stuff- I just can't think in compound angles, for some reason.

I am not going to pour mine in place, going to template and make forms. I also have a 'Pro' concrete recipe just for counter tops. The ratios are different than anything I have seen online or on DIY TV. I have already made a 12” wide x 36” long X 1-1/2” thick test piece. It came out really smooth, no voids, nice sheen. The hard part is going to be getting the color I want. But my buddy Dan ‘aka the pro’ said he would help with that. I am already looking in the classified ads for a used concrete mixer.

Molding is pretty easy if you know a few tricks.

edit - I wouldn't be using pre-mixed bags of concrete. You reallt need to make your own concrete from Portland cemenet, sand and aggregate in the ratios needed for counters. You use alot more portland cement & sand, less aggregate in concrete for counters than standard concrete so you get more cream and a smoother surface.

 

[ctenidae]

I wouldn't be using pre-mixed bags of concrete. You reallt need to make your own concrete from Portland cemenet, sand and aggregate in the ratios needed for counters. You use alot more portland cement & sand, less aggregate in concrete for counters than standard concrete so you get more cream and a smoother surface.

We did use a "special blend" for the top layer- base was bag mix, edges and top was home-style. Worked well.

 

[Trekchick]

Thanks

Maybe I should look into designing professionally. I wonder if I’m qualified to be a kitchen designer at HomeDepot or Lowes .

If I had a larger budget that would allow me to move plumbing fixtures and major appliances it would be much better. This whole endeavor is pretty much an eye wash job with a few improvement just to get us through the next couple of years until Randi is finished with school. Then this all gets gutted, and the real work starts.

When the Cabinets are done we are going to tile the backspash and I am also going to try and make my own concrete counter tops. Luckily I train with a guy that owns a concrete counter company and has given me lots of advise and offered to help.

I have a friend who just did her kitchen, planning on using concrete counter tops but the guy who was making them was so busy, she had to settle for something different because the counter was the only hold up in the kitchen.

If done right, Concrete counter tops are gorgeous!

 

[smitty77]

The base cabinets are ready-to assemble cabinets from HD. Only I put them together with wood glue and biscuits, not the crap screws they came with. I went with ready-to-assemble cabinets instead of building custom because each cabinet cost less then the materials for me to make them.

Isn't that sick? I was going to build the cabinets in my previous house with help from my Grandpa who was a carpenter/cabinet maker. Instead we put in a whole bunch of those ready-to-go cabinets for about $1500 instead of the $2500 it would have cost me just for the materials. And with a little bracing and some extra care in hanging/shimming/aligning they are fairly decent for what you pay.

Nice work by the way. It's coming along nicely.

 

[MR. evil]

Today’s project was to make a face frame for the new base cabinets and start on some drawers

Face Frame

This went pretty smoothly. The only hitch was a quick trip to HD to pick up more pocket screw…….my new pocket hole jig made assembling and installing this face frame a snap. All blind connections, no holes to fill

Drawer #1

The drawer was pretty easy to build. If I didn’t have so many to make I would have done dove tail joinery. I ended up using a combination half lap joints, dado joints, glue and wood screws. The hard part was installing the full extension drawer slides and getting everything level. Only 4 more drawers to build and install in THIS cabinet, and a couple more for the other cabinets.

 

[MR. evil]

Isn't that sick? I was going to build the cabinets in my previous house with help from my Grandpa who was a carpenter/cabinet maker. Instead we put in a whole bunch of those ready-to-go cabinets for about $1500 instead of the $2500 it would have cost me just for the materials. And with a little bracing and some extra care in hanging/shimming/aligning they are fairly decent for what you pay.

Nice work by the way. It's coming along nicely.

Ya, I was kind of shocked it was going to cost me more to make the cabinets carcasses than to buy / modify the RTA cabinets. I had to cut off about one inch from the front of each panel to accommodate the face frames I made. The RTA cabinets are flush overlay or what some people call European style meaning they don’t use a face frame. While at HD today I found a 15” RTA base cabinet that will be perfect for the cabinet to hold the trash. Going to pick that one up later this week once I finish the base cabinet I am currently working on.

 

[smitty77]

This went pretty smoothly. The only hitch was a quick trip to HD to pick up more pocket screw…….my new pocket hole jig made assembling and installing this face frame a snap. All blind connections, no holes to fill.

Hands down the greatest woodworking invention in the last 20 years. Pocket holes have been around a long time, but the new jigs are (almost) fool-proof. You can cobble together some really strong pieces rather quick with that jig.

Nice work on the face frame - that alone will strengthen those cabinets ten-fold.

 

[MR. evil]

update

It’s been a while since I have posted any updates to this thread….mainly because I have either been too lazy or too busy to actually do any work on the kitchen. Spent some time this weekend and primed all the upper cabinet doors with my new HPLV paint sprayer. Much faster and better quality than using a brush & roller. I have one more door to make at the pull out trash bin (not in pics) for the lower cabinets, and all of the drawer fronts. The rest of the lower doors are made and currently waiting to be primed and hung. Hoping to get to that one night this week. Those two nasty looking drawer fronts in the first picture are temporary. The finished drawer fronts for those 2 large pull outs will be similar to the doors. The smaller upper drawer fronts will be solid wood with some sort of edge treatment.

 

[o3jeff]

Tell the dog he's doing a great job on them!