Kitchen Cabinets

[Rslaugh]

Been awhile since i posted. Between commuting daily to Baltimore and working on the house there isn't a lot of time left. We moved into our very cosmetically challenged house a little over two years ago. The kitchen was an absolute disaster. Here's a picture looking through from the mudroom into the kitchen early on:




Beautiful floor - eh? The existing cabinets were built probably about 60-70 years ago. We're actually going to leave the uppers and make rail/stile doors with some type of glass insert, wavy maybe. LOML wanted (actually demanded) that the existing old farm sink had to stay. That dictated the height & depth of the existing cabinets which is smaller than modern cabinets. The new cabinets are modern dimensions which really increases cubic feet of storage. As you can see the stove sticks out quite a bit from the old cabinets.

Here's a closer look at the original cabinets:



And another. In this one you can see the new cabinet to left of the stove is in place. This cabinet has a bi-fold door so that it can fully open even with the table in front of it. Also a better picture of the new tile floor.



Next picture is with cabinet to the right of the stove and dishwasher in place & temporary counter top. This cabinet has a drawer and 2 slide out shelves underneath so it's easy for us to get things out without getting down on hands & knees to dig in the back.



And the finished counter top & back splash. Counter top & lower course of back splash is made with 12x12 granite tiles. Back splash is 4x4 ceramic tiles. Still need to change out the old ivory GFI & switch on the right with white ones. I will also be taking out 2 of the shelves right above the stove and installing a microwave with outside vent. There will be about 4" on both sides of the microwave which I'm going to build pull out spice racks to fill.

[Mr__Bill]

Looks good, nice bit of work.

You're going to curse yourself when you put the doors on the uppers. While it will keep things clean it's a pain having to open the door each time. I redid our cabinets and while I was making new doors the old ones were off. They looked too hideous to leave there. As doors were finished I installed and then realized just how convenient it was to just reach in for something, and it made us keep things organized too. I wish there was a way to have both.

have fun,

Bill

[cabinetman]

Looks great. The upgrade really makes a difference. Many of the old sink designs are copied for contemporary use. There are a few "builders supply" stores in this area that sell old and used appliances and fixtures. You wouldn't believe how much they get for some of the original fixtures of that era.
.

[Rslaugh]

You're going to curse yourself when you put the doors on the uppers. While it will keep things clean it's a pain having to open the door each time. .....

We took the old doors off over 18 months ago and I'm not looking forward to having them back.

Looks great. The upgrade really makes a difference. Many of the old sink designs are copied for contemporary use. There are a few "builders supply" stores in this area that sell old and used appliances and fixtures. You wouldn't believe how much they get for some of the original fixtures of that era.
.

This design has the built in back splash with the fixtures coming out horizontally. The backsplash extends up about 8" from top of sink and the window ledge is right on top of that so the height of the sink is dictated by the window. The sink is about 4" lower than the counter top shown above and my next design problem is how to integrate the rounded corners of the sink into the cabinets. Photos for ideas soon.

[lrogers]

Wow, what a difference! Very nice job on the re-do.

[jking]

Looks good, nice bit of work.

You're going to curse yourself when you put the doors on the uppers. While it will keep things clean it's a pain having to open the door each time. I redid our cabinets and while I was making new doors the old ones were off. They looked too hideous to leave there. As doors were finished I installed and then realized just how convenient it was to just reach in for something, and it made us keep things organized too. I wish there was a way to have both.

have fun,

Bill

I guess it's fine if you like that overstuffed, cluttered cabinet look. I haven't met very many people that cand keep cabinets organized enough to leave cabinet door off & have it look decent. Cabinets for plates, dishes, glasses are the exception.

On the OP, what an upgrade! I especially like the vertical beadboard look on the base cabinet doors. Nice choice on the black & white floor tile, also.

I had to go back & look - was the hanging flourescent light there when you moved in, or, did you add that as a temporary setup?

[Rslaugh]

..... I had to go back & look - was the hanging flourescent light there when you moved in, or, did you add that as a temporary setup?

When we moved in there was an office style 2' x 4' metal grid style drop ceiling which some previous owner thought would make a good wire chase. Had to have been there a while cuz the grid was starting to rust. It had a standard flourescent fixture in the middle with a cracked and yellowed diffuser. The walls had some type of white plastic sheets glued to them.

LOML looked at that ceiling & those walls for about 6 months till i came home one day and it was all ripped down and romex was hanging all over the place. I said I sure hoped she liked the new look because I was in the middle of the bathroom re-model and the kitchen was months away. Don't know why but we didn't use the kitchen much until recently.

The fixture in the picture was temporary lighting. Besides the cabinets and floor the entire kitchen was re-wired, cracked plaster ceiling was covered with beadboard and fake beam was put in for visual effect, beadboard wainscoting on the lower walls and the upper walls repaired and painted.

[footprintsinconc]

the new look in the kitchen is nice. i like how the back splash and the counter tops go togather real nice. the floor is just perfect.

[dbhost]

You know... My first thought when I saw the first couple of pics (I glanced before reading the text) was...

"Sweet merciful God please let those be the BEFORE pictures!"

My prayer was answered...

I am really liking what is going on with that black & white motif.

Got any shots of how you dealt with the sink?

[SARGE..g-47]

For a few dollars and a bit of toil, you were able to do what Joan Rivers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on without a lot of success... a major face-lift that actually made a difference.

Looks great.... well done..

[Pappy]

Helluva change for the positive! I think I would have been tempted to see how that wood floor would have cleaned up.