Viewer Comments:
Very nice kitchen! One question, was it necessary to use bulky file guides? I may be able to understand it on a large pan drawer but not so much a utility drawer. Just a thought. Personally I would have went with undermount with soft close. You may consider Dovetail drawers too. They aren't that expensive and it will speak volume of your eye for detail. Just my 2 cents. Other then that it's beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Kol,
Thank you for the kind words .
I have this thing about all the drawers looking the same when they are out and I just don't yet have the confidence in the undermounts , my concern is the much lower weight capacity compared to the 150lb models. It is so hard to teach an old dog new tricks . I do need to give them a try ,everyone I know that uses them likes them.I did use the soft close feature added to the Mepla hinges , that is always a big hit.
I'm not sure how much most guys add to upgrade to DT drawers but unless my clients insist which simply does not happen in our market I don't go there .I do agree the DT do look great but really offer no more durability or utility imo and in a very price sensitive market place the extra $3,000 could have blown me out of the job.
I have noticed DT drawers mostly on modular factory made cabinets , nice looking solid wood drawer box in a pos box , total sales tool not an indication of quality cabinets only the drawers .
thanks again
db
that is a really nice kitchen. the recessed sink cabinet is a great idea and the bump outs at the refer wall cabinets add just a bit of interest and shows off your attention to the small details. was this your design or a 3rd party?
sean m ,
Thank you , When I have the space and the style will take it I try and create a recess at sink openings .
When you have a 25 1/5" countertop butting into the refer walls I make the walls at least 26" and the crown molds out nice .
The HO worked with a designer who created a plan for removing a wall and re doing a laundry room and a pantry as well as the kitchen.I used the foot print but cleaned up the layout and made changes to accomodte.
db
db, I couldn't agree more about the dovetails being a sales tool, and that there's a lot of clients that won't pay for them. I have always just included them because I feel my work deserves it. Any drawer will outlast a kitchen simply because homes sell and people change things to often. It is a very nice kitchen.
Gorgeous kitchen, I would have used very detailed bar corbels from the Corbel and Mantel super store, instead of the simple bar brackets on the curved bar area. The ones used in the pictures are so plain that actually take away from the great detail in the kitchen. The Corbel and Mantel super store has a wide variety of hand carved corbels and products that would have added nicely to this project
To Corbeland ,
Thanks ,
As far as the corbels I made for this job ,if the photo was better you could see the corbels had the same exact detail that the rest of the kitchen had including the glazing .The upper granite bar needed corbels that provided enough structural integrity and 11" depth as per the granite requirements , I saw no corbels in your offerings that could be used but they are very nice thank you for soliciting me with your products .
GREAT LOOKING KITCHEN. IM TRYING TO GET SAME LOOK WITH MAPLE. WHAT WAS THE STAIN, FINISH ETC. I AM CURRENTLY EXPERIMENTING WITH ALL TYPES OF STAIN, NOT REALLY GETTING THE LOOK I WANT. THE COLOR YOU HAVE IS WHAT I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR. IM USING MAPLE FRAME WITH BIRCH PLY AS THE FLAT PANEL. ANY SUGGESTIONS THANX.
Bob ,
The Cherry pictured in this kitchen had a clear finish with some glaze applied but wiped off except in the step of the details around the frame and panels and fronts as well. The color you see is natural as the Cherry is beggining To darken .To make your Birch panel and Maple frames look alike will be a challenge let alone make them both look like Cherry .It would have been a better match to use and stain Alder with either Red Birch panel or Alder ply panels. You may be able to use a toner or a tint on the Maple to get it close to the red tones but the Maple will take most color less then the Birch in many cases .If you can bite the bullet and use Cherry the time you save on finish may be wash out in dollars.
good luck
Thanks,D, I just spent the last 2hrs trying to get maple and birch to match with some dye stains. As you probaly know it didnt go to well. Have not considered cheery due to price, I will now.Your panels are cherry ply, or cherry veneer over a substrate? Not familiar with Alder.
bob,glazer trumps the stainer every time. seal up a piece of birch,likewise a piece of maple. get yourself some glaze son, you can get close to what you want. i can guarantee you this, if you don't get what you were originally after, you can still get a unique and beautiful look from glazes. they are far less limiting than stains
I want to enter the dovetail drawer discussion. I butt joint 1/2"Baltic Birch using pin nails and titebond 3 glue. I trap the bottom and,with 20 cents of hot melt glue,I make the box ridgid. I have to hammer them apart. The drawer slides have greased BALL BEARINGS which take practically all the weight of the drawer and it's contents. Dovetailed joints were designed for solid wood that moved seasonally and had to stay together with the full weight of the drawer on the drawer front. Using dovetailed drawers with modern slides is like a woman using a garter belt with a pair of pantyhose. She doesn't need them. I grew up with a family "junk drawer" which probably had 50lbs of stuff in it. The unglued rabbeted drawer front finally, after 30 years, pulled the #6 flat head nails through the sides. But if we had waxed the drawer runners I'm sure the drawer would still be working.
Russell ,
I build my drawer boxes similar to you . I use Apple ply usually and cut a slot for the bottom ,I use glue.I fill the pin holes so they do look clean.
The whole thing with dts has much to do with the level of matket we are in.The extreme high end it expected in many cases .
db,
Beautiful job! As you said, you got lucky on the veneers particularly while going with a natural finish. I've got a natural cherry job in the shop right now that has too much variation between the ply and the solid wood for my taste. The customer loves it so my mouth is shut??
Drawers? I offer outsourced solid wood dt, outsourced china birch dt, shop built solid dovetailed and my standard drawer which is 3/4" prefinished china birch plywood, edgebanded, and pocket screwed together. My customers pick that last drawer every time. I wish somebody would buy the dovetail so I could get my 'fix'.
Regards
Jack
Thanks Jack ,
The variation in color you speak of probably won't get better only darker .
DT drawers are sweet , I think it is all in marketing and market level of the job at hand .
I try to use no China ply in my works , I got a thing about it .
Looks great! My best lumber supplier will pull sequenced sheets of panels for me in groups of about 6 sheets. It's worth asking!
J Rutter , thanks , I asked for 4 or so that were alike for door panels but got 6 or seven matching sheets . My supplier will select for me , sometimes you get perfectly matched sheets .
Nice looking kitchen. I am not crazy about that deep cabinet with the glass front and side panel. I think I would have paneled the back side of the Peninsula too.
Simply, and Classy!!I Love it, Excellant Job.
Dennis, This one of the finest kitchens I have ever seen. I have been in the business for 25 years, and it is nice when a client will pay for this level of quality. I use only 3/4" maple or birch ply for my boxes, what do you use? Thnx for sharing.
Thanks Dan , I wanted to build a separate China cab and did not love it at first but after it was all in and all molded it felt better .
Shannon , thank You.
Rustler , Thanks Mom , I'll fix the gate next week ,,,
I wouldn't go that far out on a limb , we have all seen work that makes ours look like childs play and humbles us back to reality , every now and then we / I need that push.
thanks
Dovetail drawers are for aesthetics and the educated customer thinks they're getting high quality. If you set up with even the barebones of dovetail equipment, it doesn't take much longer at all to make a box with dovetails than it does to brad nail them.
For me, I want my customer to be wowed by any detail I can add.
