pharaoh's Kitchen

Almost finished Kitchen remodel - DIY

Contact: pharaoh (My Page)
Posted on Mon, Jan 15, 07
Link to kitchen photos: http://kitchenforum.snapfish.com

Details:

• Cabinets: built from Red birch. Frameless cabs. All lower cabs are drawers. Drawer hardware is blumotion . Hinges are self close/soft close. Finish is oil based poly. No stain. Door style is shaker with a reverse reveal ( the front of the panel is flat, the back is raised).
• Floor: travertine with onyx insets (laid on schluter ditra isolation membrane). The marble medallion was factory made.
• Lighting is 4" recessed halogens on dimmers.
• Asko Dishwasher
• Jade 48" built in refrigerator
• Electrolux double wall ovens and warming drawer
• Bluestar 30" range top
• The most expensive and bold part of the kitchen is the Connemara Irish Green Marble counters with floor returns. All of the templating, fabrication and installation was supervised by me. The installer did a flawless job.
• The sink is counter depth apron front Julienesque stainless, flush mounted to the countertop.
  
• The faucet is Hamat Ergo
• The china cabinet has no glass! It has a built in aquarium
• The hood is glass/stainless from ebay
• The island has a back lit onyx panel that we made and installed for a lounge look when we have cocktail parties :)
• onyx pendants from Home Depot
• cabinet pulls from ebay
• rope lighting
  
• backsplash: tbd.... thinking of solid glass panels.
• The storage containers are the 365 series from IKEA. The spice jars are also from IKEA.
  

We did all the work ourselves including building the cabinets, installing the floors, cabs, appliances, electrical, gas, plumbing, lighting, etc. The only thing we made was the marble counters.

Some more details on the woodworking.

We have spent the last two years learning woodworking and acquiring all the power tools and skills needed to take on such a huge project. It took us longer than expected due to many difficult techniques. The finishing alone took me a month! We had set up the garage for 5 months as a workshop.

1. The cabinet boxes are all made from prefinished 3/4" birch plywood using biscuit joints and pocket holes. The front edges of the plywood is finished with a burgess edge solid red birch insert. (no veneer or tape). The doors are shaker style with a flat front panel and a raised panel on the inside.

2. All the drawers are dovetailed (even though it is an overkill in todays day of pocket screws and glue) but I wanted to learn how to do them well.

3. The grain matching was a difficult task because you have to mark each piece and keep the order correct through the entire process.

4. Highly figured boards were reserved for places like the door above the aquarium etc.