Finishing Touches

With the install of the kitchen countertop, the kitchen is nearly complete -- just a bit of finish painting to do (thus the green tape) -- and eventually a tile backsplash... perhaps from Heath if we can afford it. Some friends have asked to see pictures and hear details...

Here goes: All cabinetry by Ikea (about $4500K total), Countertops by Silestone (Blanco Maple) through Home Depot (2cm @ $63/sf), Appliances by Bosch, Faucet by Hans Grohe (funny, I've seen this model in sooo many places), Sink by Blanco (Blancospex), breakfast table from Ikea (soon to be replaced with a lower, custom one)... Admittedly, lots of work went into the finishing touches... lots of custom woodwork, trim, etc. which made it (hopefully) a bit nicer than a typical out-of-the-box install.

That said, having a table saw, a steady hand, a good (and patient) helper and an eye for detail is handy... One of the additional steps we took with assembly was to PVA/wood-glue all the dowels as well as glue (liquid nails) all of the edges that join-up in the frames. This made for a bit of extra time, but on one cabinet we had to "re-do", the strongest part was the seams/joints (we had to go a little "Office Space" on it to bust it down for trash-transport). We also caulked the bottom seams once assembled to prevent damage to the frames should water/moisture get in there (it's a kitchen, it's gonna' happen). With all that -- plus the extra trim step (flush trim), edging of pieces and a few more "improvements" -- we hopefully have a kitchen that will last quite a while.

We also had to get a bit creative when running the electrical feeds to the island. While we have all of the circuits necessary in a modern kitchen, I didn't want to simply have flex-cable running all over loosey-goosey. I was able to craftily run the power in EMT conduit on top of and underneath the island cabinets in a super-tidy fashion. Granted only when you're on a ladder or on your knees would you ever notice such a thing, but it was the "right" way to run it -- especially with the open leg design...

On the dishwasher, we hacked some Ikea legs to bolt to the existing leg shafts (see pix below), essentially extending them to the height we needed (which was a bit taller than the dishwasher otherwise wanted to go). This adds a nice finished look to the front plinth area.

Oh, the appliances. Someone asked me how I liked the oven. I don't. The oven takes forrrever to warm up (15 mins), but afterward, it's OK. It was also about 50 deg. off on first install (I had to fiddle with the setting to calibrate it). I need to call Bosch as it doesn't seem like an oven running on 220V should be this wimpy. The cooktop is OK... it's electric and it was what I expected. Hitting 3 different buttons (on >> burner select >> power level) is a bit of a pain when you just want a simple blast of heat, but for both, it beat running gas into the space. We love the dishwasher and the fridge is OK... it's a fridge -- it keeps things cold.

If you've questions, please feel free to ask. If it's not obvious, we're pretty candid -- hopefully that's helpful to someone.

Edit: Here's a link to the "final" kitchen post -- more current info with links to past posts.

 

Comments

[Brendan]

Be sure to check the electrical on the oven. If its out of phase you'll get wimpy performance. Same thing happened with ours.

Kitchen looks great - we flipped ours opposite so we could run the gas easily in against the outside wall. Keep up the good work, our project is getting closer to completion. Next is landscaping then of course decorating :)

[tammy]

love the choices of finishes. you guys did a fantastic job. your kitchen is beautiful.

we are doing something very similiar and hope to have the finished pictures up soon.

[Alex]

drool

[Nick & Marci]

Your new kitchen is fantastic. You did a great job!

[red]

thanks n/m: looks like you're starting on your own kitchen project soon as well... a few tips:

-- check around for countertop pricing. we got ours at homedepot yardbrids (a small footprint, concept HD) for $63/sqf and didn't have to pay extra for any cutouts (tons included). most folks want around $85 + fees for cutouts.

-- when assembling the cabs, i'd suggest a thin bead of liquidnails on each seam and some woodglue in the dowels. wipe up the excess well (spirits = liqnails). also a thin bead around the perimeter where the back hits as well as a few dollops/squiggles between the cabs. also a dollop of liqnails between the feet/bases and the cabs... essentially a bit of glue in one for or another where ever you can.

-- a pneumatic stapler saves tons of time when putting on the backs. make sure to angle the shot a hint to the outside. the staples hold much better than the brad nails they come with.

-- if backing up cabs like we did (for the island), remember you'll need to trim off the upper and lower lips from the 12in deep "wall" cabs used as base cabs... as they're actually 12.5 deep with the lip... which would suck if you had a 36in wide end panel and a 36.5in wide cab arrangement.

-- the nexus line is made of oak, so you can edgeband raw edges and stain/finish to match. if you don't think you'll se a raw edge, it'll be the first thing you now see when you walk into your kitchen every morning. take the time to seal it up right (and the edge banding will help protect from moisture damage... this is good for the oven hole, too as there's stuff that can steam, seep and otherwise damage the not-terribly-high-quality particleboard. hot-melt oak edgebanding is available at most HDs in the lumber section and is easy to iron on -- and with a trimmer, easy to trim off. don't get a trimmer that trims with a 45deg bevel. get the cheaper straight one from band-it ( http://tinyurl.com/9wzyeu ). staining and finishing is also easy. you'll be glad you did when your veneer doesn't start peeling/chipping in 10 years.

-- measure twice, cut once. a cliched adage, but good to keep in mind here. ikea is not next door.

-- save receipts. you'll be returning lots. and some stuff will be busted.

-- be picky. if a door grain looks weird now, it will look weird forever. ikea has plenty of stock now, but the line will eventually be discontinued. so...

-- buy one extra of every door you used (hopefully they're symmetrical) and drawer front and hold in storage. you'll need them one day and they're cheap presently. for us, 15in was our "base" measurement, so all doors/drawers are that width.

whew... good luck.

[Nick & Marci]

Thank you for all the tips!!!

We'll have to look into that hot-melt oak edgebanding. And, we didn't even think about buying extra door faces. That is such a good idea.

We have already had to exchange about a third our door faces because they had scratches, dings or just, as you said, looked weird. But, that's IKEA for you. Inspect everything? I'm sure we'll find something that shouldn't have "passed inspection" when we start putting everything together. At least there's an IKEA in Portland. (That can be good and bad - we now have more IKEA lighting than we can actually use.)

We've been following your blog for a while now. It's great to see all the progress you've made. Thanks for sharing. And, keep up the good work!

[Ryan]

Great kitchen, I'm impressed. IKEA kicks ass.

[penelope]

Hi, amazing blog. we are barving the remodel of eichler kitchen this month. We want to use the square besta stands like you have with the nexus cabs, one problem, we would need to hack the besta frame on one galley side of cabs/countertop, as it will not be 2 cabinet depths wide. did you run into this issue? (we may have to use the other ugly round legs in back of this counter cab area and put the besta square framed legs in front and hope no one will ever crawl under and notice. How much ickky dust gets under those free standing cabinet bases anyways? or should ask, who does the vacumeing and cleaning ??? It will always be my job so i am concerned about this point!