Project by Tony1212 | posted 11-14-2013 06:08 PM | 2218 views | 0 times favorited | 4 comments | ![]() |
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The kitchen was always a setup a bit wonky. My wife wanted to move some storage around and set up a computer desk so our son could do his homework where we could monitor what he was doing. So, she designed this built in for the kitchen and I went out and built it.
I used Baltic Birch plywood for all the wide areas and hard maple for the face frames and cabinet rails and stiles. I made it in 4 sections so I could fit it all through the front door. I don’t have a router table (yet), so I stuck with easy flat panel cabinet doors. My wife really seemed to like them.
The real time and effort was in the finishing. I sanded to 320 grit then put on a water based dye. Sand 320 again. Put on a coat of 100% de-waxed shellac (sanding sealer). Sand 320 again. Put on a gel stain and wipe off. No sanding after that, but another coat of sanding sealer. Then another 320 sanding. Then 3 coats of water based polyurethane with 400 grit sanding after the 1st and 2nd coat.
My wife loved it so much, she decided that she wanted a matching table in the kitchen. I went to the lumber yard and got some big 2×2 maple legs and used some 1x hard maple for the apron. It was starting to get cold by the time I finished the table so I made an easy top out of leftover BB plywood and hard maple edge banding. It didn’t go so well. I had 3 panels and they weren’t flush, so I went at it with my belt sander. It’s flush, but it doesn’t look so good. I’ll build a real top for it next year. Until then we put a runner to cover up the plywood joint lines.
The table is 37” high. Both my wife and I are over 6ft and we love that height. She’s already working on drawings of a kitchen with counters at that height. So I have a lot of work ahead of me.
This was the first time I took on anything even approaching this scale. I think I did pretty good. I learned a LOT and made some mistakes that I will never repeat again.
-- Tony, SW Chicago Suburbs
4 comments so far
Sanding2day
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1016 posts in 2819 days
#1 posted 11-14-2013 09:28 PM
Nice work Tony… Will have the home fully equipped in no time :) Thanks for sharing…
-- Dan
Fishinbo
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#2 posted 11-19-2013 03:22 PM
Both projects look great and well finished. The cabinet has lots of storage, very functional and the table goes well with the chairs. Great work!
Bill Huffman
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238 posts in 2391 days
#3 posted 05-26-2020 02:26 PM
Hi Tony,
Sorry for taking so long to see this, but this is a very nice cabinet, and finish. Love the color of course, what did you use?
It was my first time using Water-based finishes on my office project, but I like the finish and would use it again, but it was not cheap, so I would like to know of alternatives.
The Cinnamon color was the one I chose from General Finishes Water Based finishes. I think it took 3 (+....) coats to get that deep color.
-- Im so impressed with what people can do, and I wonder how they do it. Thats what keeps me doing it.
Tony1212
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488 posts in 2707 days
#4 posted 05-26-2020 02:32 PM
Thank you, Bill. I used a multi-step finishing process. I used a red mahogony dye, Zinser Sanding Sealer (de-waxed shellac) then a dark brown gel stain to darken it up. Then I covered that with another coat of the sanding sealer and 3 coats of WB poly. Took forever and now my wife wants me to do the whole kitchen. I’m in for a load of hurt. :)
-- Tony, SW Chicago Suburbs
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