A cabin gets a remodel.

[Stan]

My sister has been remodeling a small cabin to use as a guest room and requested some cabinets and countertop. Just finished installing the countertops today. Here's the result, still have a partition to go at the end of the longer run of cabinets for a 'porta-potty stall' in the far corner, but that won't be done for a few weeks.

Thanks for looking.

Storage cabinets.


Wash basin cabinet.



And here is the cabin itself.

[John Hunter]

Very nice.

[SHADOWFOX]

Simply amazing! Great job!

[bigstick509]

Very Nice

[mater]

Beautiful work. It looks good.

[GPA61]

Excellent work, Stan.

[lrogers]

Absolutely beautiful!

[Popeye]

Cabinets look great. How about a closeup of the counter tops. That wood edge and laminate detail caught my eye right away. Pat

[Stan]

Cabinets look great. How about a closeup of the counter tops. That wood edge and laminate detail caught my eye right away. Pat

Here ya go.

[L. D. Jeffries]

Give us an update on how you made the counter tops. Is that a wood band between the top and edging? The whole project looks GREAT!

[Stan]

Will try a description and see if it makes any sense.... The countertop is made from 3/4" particle board and has 2" wide strips of additional particle board around the bottom along the edges to build it up to 1-1/2" thick, and in the center where the base sides will support the bottom of the countertop.

4/4 stock to match the cabinets is cut to 1-1/2" wide and glued/braded to all the countertop faces that will be cut to reveal the 4/4 stock. Bevel the corners where a radius will be formed. Watch where you put the brads after gluing things up -- you will be routing away about 1/4" from the top, and need to cut/sand the radius corners -- so stay about 2" from the beveled corners with brads. (no sense cutting brads with a blade or cutter if you don't have to)

Determine the radius of your exposed corners (I cut a blank with a 4-1/8" hole saw), mark it and rough it out with whatever tool fits your fancy, I used a jigsaw.

Sand out the rough spots to smooth the radius, but check with a square to ensure you are keeping the edge 90° to the top (if it gets out of square, the laminate will try to climb or drop as you go around the corner).

Cut your face laminate to about 1-3/4" wide and attach, leaving a small gap between the laminate and the top of the 4/4 stock is ok -- gonna route it anyways, just don't let that gap get too big.

Use a heat gun to soften up the laminate to get it to go around the radius corner (a hair dryer will not work DAMHIKT). Go real slow and keep the heat applied, when the laminate gets warm enough it should wrap around the radius nicely.

Trim away the ends and bottom with a trim router and then adhere laminate to the top of the countertop.

Check the bearing on your trim router, if it is not spinning freely -- a dose of WD-40 should take care of that. Also apply some Pam cooking spray to any section of laminate that the bearing will ride against, helps keep from scratching/scoring the laminate.

Once everything is trimmed to size, use a 45° chamfer bit with bearing. I took three passes to keep from chipping the laminate. A new or freshly sharpened router cutter is a good idea.

Route the chamfer until there is about 3/8" of the surrounding 4/4 stock exposed.

Add polyurethane (or your protective top-coat of choice) to the exposed 4/4 stock and your done.

Let me know if that doesn't make sense.

[cgallery]

That looks fantastic. Really fits in with the interior seamlessly.