Kitchen island

Rich Soby

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1,553
Location
Cape Cod, Ma.
Just finished up the installation tonight. Hopefully going to be doing the kitchen project as well!
The cabinet is maple with General Finishes waterborne urethane tinted navy blue in a satin sheen. The tops are 1-1/2" thick quartersawn white oak finished with Targets em8000 conversion varnish and tinted with TransTint dye part mission oak part dark walnut, built up over 4 coats. The first three sprayed in gloss the final with the flattening agent added to tone it down to a little duller than semi gloss but not quite satin. The drawers are dovetailed maple with the Accuride eclipse soft close undermount slides and the hardware is from Horton Brass. I used a black toe kick to create the illusion of it being off the floor. The leg was made with a compound cut on the bandsaw to give the radius in 3 dimensions.
I used the Sommerfeld beaded face frame set up I discussed earlier. I have to say its got a bit of a learning curve and I need to make some tweeks on my end but the end result was very nice. Im quite pleased with its operation.
The customer is thrilled! I hope to be doing his kitchen next!!







 
That sure looks great Rich:thumb: How does that finish hold up for the countertops? I need to refinish my Jarrah countertops and am looking into something different/durable than I did for the original finish which was 3 coats tongue oil finish and 3 coats wipe on poly.
 
Ive had good luck with it. A few years ago I used it on a set of built ins and its still holding up very well. This counter and one I did a few months ago are the first ones I used the catalyst on though. The catalyst is supposed to harden the finish more and make it more chemical resistant.
I love the finished look of it. It reminds me of traditional lacquer. It really lets the wood show its depth and warmth
 
Rich wonderful work. My first thoughts were boy your customer must (better :D:gonnagetit:) be happy as can be with that masterpiece.

I was thinking of a commercial line for this picture kinda like you might put on a flyer..." Try finding this at Ikea " lol that will last longer than the company itself.

I have to ask though why did you not carry the leg concept all the way round? Excuse my ignorance of these things. I really like the fake leg and the curves. Nice touch.

Hope the client appreciates it enough to have you do the whole kitchen.

Also when you say you added something to dull the finish down is that a trade secret or do you mind sharing what you do to finish to achieve that.

Stunning piece, i too like the mix of color. Thanks for posting this. Real inspiration work.:thumb:
 
Thank you everyone! My client wants to go forward with the kitchen. we are going to start working on the design soon!

Rob, The existing kitchen had that huge open space where the island now sits. But the shape of the entire room (kitchen, dining, living) is open in an L shape.
The upper bar was designed to seat 7 people, 9 foot run the length of the kitchen and then a 6 foot run across. The brackets were all that was necessary for proper support of the eating counter and also would keep the piece "light" in appearance and make the counter sort of "float". On the end where the 6 foot run sits, the island is only 27 inches deep leaving a little over 3 feet of overhang unsupported. It is also only 42 inches from counter to counter and that end actually goes into the living/dining area. My intent was to go with the leg to preserve an "openness" to the space rather than carry the end of the island over that 3 feet. Had I done so it would have made that part of the room feel very closed off. Also, a couple of subtleties in the construction of this project are twofold. 1) my client is very much into a nautical feel. He spends much of his free time out fishing and boating 2) he enjoys doing a lot of cooking and wine is one of his hobbies. I tried to bring both into the theme of the island. The dark blue of the sea with the bright hardware the leg is reminiscent of a trident the brackets somewhat like ships knees the white oak is used in boat building as well as to make wine barrels. The seating he selected are stools made from wine barrel staves with stainless hardware and dark leather seats.
We also swapped the dining and seating areas placing the leather couch, chair and ottoman where it now sits to open the room to the fireplace and since the kitchen is the area most gravitate to it increases the socializing area. And to bring the fireplace into the theme. (when the dining set was there it blocked the fireplace) we moved the dining room around the corner into the L which has an atomosphere all its own but is still part of the room. we put it there because that will mainly be used just at the "sit down" part of any dinners. Hope that sheds a bit more light on where we're heading with this.
 
very nicely done rich,, i also like your color choices.. and that miter was a fun fit huh? how did you keep it tight with normal draw type hardware? how did you cut it to fit so well?
 
Hi Larry, I have a sliding table on my table saw that would have worked wonderfully except for the lolly column and a wall that shorten the length of anything I can run through it.... (love a basement shop.. arrrrrgh) So I used my festool track saw and lots of checking rechecking... The festool is not even remotely as accurate as needed and I ended up having to use a small belt sander to fine tune it... I still have a small gap at one end of the miter but after the finish has reached full cure Ill do a little tweeking there to keep any spills from getting down. its about a fat 32nd for a few inches....
The hardware I used are the KV Tite-Joint fasteners. http://www.thehardwarehut.com/images/pdf/kv/kvm-513-zc-spec.pdf These are the best fasteners I have used. You can really draw a joint together
 
beautiful skill intensive work.

rob keeble-why on earth would rich even compare any of his work with anything from Ikea. How bout putting in a new kitchen? why settle for anything less than this!
 
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