# Kitchen Cabinets



## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

*Kitchen cabinet doors*

 

I debated whether I should put this entry here or over at HomeRefurbers, but that site really hasn't taken off yet, and the process of coming up with our kitchen cabinets is feeling a whole lot more like woodworking than it is home improvement. Although an upgrade from the 1 person 1947 kitchen will certainly be an improvement.

My arm was good enough this weekend to play in the shop again. My main project was to mock up a prototype to some lightweight appliance lift ideas I've had, we want to put the toaster and the vacuum sealer and the blender on appliance lifts, but we want something small, that only takes up 8" or so of vertical underneath the counter, and we don't need to be swinging a big heavy weight, like a huge mixer, that most of the commercial appliance lifts are engineered for. My prototypes aren't worth showing off yet, but I also whipped together a second prototype door so that I could become familiar with these newfangled "euro hinge" thingies (kids these days, what will they come up with next, eh?).

So this is a pair of practice doors mounted on a box made of cheap exterior grade plywood.

The frames are Eastern maple that we bought for cheap off Craigslist from a local guy who makes stamp handles. This is his scrap, some of it is beautifully figured heart/sap interface, some of it is just utility maple, but we like the look. The panels are Peruvian mahogany reclaimed from box beams, these are glued up from narrow pieces because this is just prototyping to see if we like it, the actual panels will be one piece for the full width.

The difficult part of these doors is that the frame is mitered. If you've ever tried to get 45.0000°, you'll understand. Also, because I'm cutting with the Festool saw on a rail rather than a table saw, ripping to width takes a little bit of care. I'm getting better at both of those things. The miters are joined with loose tenons (Dominos).

We're trying to figure out what catch and spring mechanisms we may use, I'm pushing for a handle of some sort, either carved out of mahogany or some darker wood, Charlene's preferences seem to be running towards the "push to open" mechanisms, but I'm not so much a fan because I think they always get stuck in the wrong position, misfire, and don't look terribly good.

Feels good to get back in the shop.


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## Zuki (Mar 28, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *Kitchen cabinet doors*
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Glad to hear you are back in the shop after the skating accident. I like the door design and the contrasting mahogany. If you are using the 35mm blum system the hinges should keep the doors closed.


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## dennis (Aug 3, 2006)

DanLyke said:


> *Kitchen cabinet doors*
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I like the almost log look of your rails and stiles. If you went with a face frame you could just route a finger pull and forget knobs and "push to open hardware". With the funny Euro hinge, get them self closing and forget the latches. Boy do I know what you mean about 45.0000000…Thats why I buy 55 gal drums of wood puddy.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *Kitchen cabinet doors*
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Zuki, I'm currently just using the basic Home Despot hinge, I think it's branded "Liberty Hardware". I'm not terribly impressed, but it's not the worst hinge I've ever used. I've put a $2.50 soft-close piston on it, just to see how it works, but going with the Blum with the integrated soft-close sure seems like a better way.

Dennis, the only problem I've got with the routed finger-pulls is that in a few places we're planning on having the doors just meet in the center without having a backing frame. Might be able to put pulls on the bottom or top of the door otherwise, though.

Re: the wood putty, the most I'll give myself is cyanoacrylate in the joint before I sand, but then I've got to remember to not use the Festool sander, 'cause I want the sawdust. That maple is so light that anything more than a hairline shows up really strongly. I'm getting a lot better at the process though, I cut just a hair less (we're talking thousandths measured 2' out the fence) than 45° and clamp strongly.

Oh yeah, I should also note that these doors just have a coat of thinned shellac to fill the pores. The panel on the right has also had a layer of silica based pore filler, but we're still experimenting with the right way to dye and apply that, and then we'll be doing a polyurethane over that. Probably a few coats of water-based hand-rubbed poly.

Aaaand, it's also my hope that as the maple ages it'll turn that beautiful orange that'll glow really nicely against the mahogany.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

*Working on a countertop*



This weekend's goal is getting the cabinet beside the stove to at least have a usable counter-top. We picked up a beaten up 10'x2' glued up piece of maple countertop off of Craigslist for $50, and that's becoming the surface for beside the stoive, and the narrow counter for under the window, with a backsplash cut from the scraps. Today I took a deep breath and cut the first pieces.



As I said, the counter-top was pretty beat up with a few gaps, so as I sanded it down I filled the gaps with cyanoacrylate, hoping that the sawdust would bond with the glue and create a decent filler. The Festool ETS 150/5 EQ Sander is not the best sander to be doing this with, I should have gotten the noisy shakey Craftsman out for this, because even with the vacuum unplugged on the Festool it still didn't leave a whole lot of sawdust lying around, but we seem to have gotten a fairly smooth surface out off the process. I am, however, going to have to do a little bit more after the rest of the glue-up, because my work surface wasn't as clean as it should have been and I got a few grains of something embedded in there when I flipped this to do glue-up.



I was hoping to do both sides of the glue-up at once, but it's hot and dry here today, and that glue was going solid really fast, so I did one, waited twenty minutes, took the squeeze out off with a chisel, waited another half an hour, then did the other side. The edges are held on with floating tenons cut with the Domino, I'm going to have to do a little clean-up with the hand plane before I get the back and partial front pieces on.

(Essentially the same content over at my personal blog)


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

DanLyke said:


> *Working on a countertop*
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Good luck on the creation of your kitchen.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

*Pantry shelves temporarily in place*

This should really probably go over at Home Refurbers, but I started this series here, so I'll continue it. Amidst everything else, I got the pantry shelves (not really a pantry, but since that's the function of these shelves, that's what we're calling them) finished. Still need to make the doors, but that can wait; at least we've got the huge unweildy particle board monstrosities that we bought from a store going out of business that were there temporarily out of the kitchen.

We haven't tackled the wiring yet, and we're still planning on replacing the floor, so I put 2×4 spacers in behind the cabinets to allow the stove to plug in, and the center piece that joins the two 2' wide cabinets together is held on with cams so that it can be removed to allow the whole thing to come out again, fairly easily.


























Yes, the grain is matched across the trim pieces, and those spots with the dividers in 'em will have drawers.


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## ryno101 (May 14, 2008)

DanLyke said:


> *Pantry shelves temporarily in place*
> 
> This should really probably go over at Home Refurbers, but I started this series here, so I'll continue it. Amidst everything else, I got the pantry shelves (not really a pantry, but since that's the function of these shelves, that's what we're calling them) finished. Still need to make the doors, but that can wait; at least we've got the huge unweildy particle board monstrosities that we bought from a store going out of business that were there temporarily out of the kitchen.
> 
> ...


Dan,

Really enjoying this… keep us posted.

Excellent looking pantry, I'm loving the matched grain patterns!


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *Pantry shelves temporarily in place*
> 
> This should really probably go over at Home Refurbers, but I started this series here, so I'll continue it. Amidst everything else, I got the pantry shelves (not really a pantry, but since that's the function of these shelves, that's what we're calling them) finished. Still need to make the doors, but that can wait; at least we've got the huge unweildy particle board monstrosities that we bought from a store going out of business that were there temporarily out of the kitchen.
> 
> ...


Thanks!

Two additional notes:

1. Wow, I'd never noticed how much bowing that particular camera lens has in it… Those sides really are straight.
2. The shelf pin holes are cut with the Domino, I just put up a "howto" blog entry.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

*How I cut my shelf pins*

For the cabinets, I wanted movable shelves. I was told that the Euro style round pins "looked tacky", and I didn't want to run tracks, but I'd run across a note by Charles Wilson suggesting the use of Dominos for shelf pins, and that seemed like a great idea.

I cut a strip of wood the width of the spacing I wanted, cut it in half, put a lip on each one so that I could place it on the edge of my carcase sides and it'd protrude over at 90 degrees. Then it was just a matter of clamping, using the Domino to drill the mortise/pin hole, leapfrogging the guide, re-clamping, and repeating:

 

My Wiki page on the topic.


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## Steve2 (Aug 16, 2008)

DanLyke said:


> *How I cut my shelf pins*
> 
> For the cabinets, I wanted movable shelves. I was told that the Euro style round pins "looked tacky", and I didn't want to run tracks, but I'd run across a note by Charles Wilson suggesting the use of Dominos for shelf pins, and that seemed like a great idea.
> 
> ...


Oh, my goodness gracious - we feel the 1/4" holes with an insignificant 1/16" metal lip under the shelf look tacky (OK) but we solve this by placing a 1/4" x 1"-plus wooden domino "biscuits" as a solution, and at $750 for the tool? *You have got to be kidding.*


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *How I cut my shelf pins*
> 
> For the cabinets, I wanted movable shelves. I was told that the Euro style round pins "looked tacky", and I didn't want to run tracks, but I'd run across a note by Charles Wilson suggesting the use of Dominos for shelf pins, and that seemed like a great idea.
> 
> ...


Yeah, there's a lot about my sweety's different aesthetics I don't necessarily understand, but…

The ¼" holes are most commonly seen in cheap particle board or MDF crap, so there's a big association with that style of shelf support and the kind of stuff you'd knock together from Ikea or Target. Since aesthetics is all about the association between a style and other experiences in your life, I can totally see how ¼" holes can be associated with peeling melamine and sagging shelves.

And, there's a difference between the metal pins and wood pins.

Finally, to the price of the tool, we buy reclaimed and surplus lumber and the tools still don't cost more than the wood. You can scoff all you want at the "glorified biscuit joiner", that is the most useful tool in my shop. Everything else there's a substitute for: if I didn't have a saw on a rail I'd have a table saw or a radial arm saw, and I wouldn't slow down that much; If I didn't have one router, I'd have another; if I didn't have a biscuit joiner, I'd use a router and splines. If I didn't have the Domino I'd have a big collection of jigs and a router and the router table or the saw and I wouldn't be nearly as productive or use tenons in nearly as many places.

And, the Euro style shelf pin holes efficiently would probably set me back $350-400 in jigs that'd have no other purpose.


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## Russel (Aug 13, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *How I cut my shelf pins*
> 
> For the cabinets, I wanted movable shelves. I was told that the Euro style round pins "looked tacky", and I didn't want to run tracks, but I'd run across a note by Charles Wilson suggesting the use of Dominos for shelf pins, and that seemed like a great idea.
> 
> ...


"Since aesthetics is all about the association between a style and other experiences in your life, I can totally see how ¼" holes can be associated with peeling melamine and sagging shelves."

Dan, this statement put quite a bit into perspective for me. It's one of those things you seem to know intuitively, but until it's expressed clearly (like you did) you don't know that you know it.


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## North40 (Oct 17, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *How I cut my shelf pins*
> 
> For the cabinets, I wanted movable shelves. I was told that the Euro style round pins "looked tacky", and I didn't want to run tracks, but I'd run across a note by Charles Wilson suggesting the use of Dominos for shelf pins, and that seemed like a great idea.
> 
> ...


Dan - this is an interesting solution. I always tell my clients (that includes Marianne), "I can do it however you want." I build custom, and the customer's always right.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Domino is one of those tools that you aren't sure you need it until you have it, and then you can't imagine how you lived without it.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *How I cut my shelf pins*
> 
> For the cabinets, I wanted movable shelves. I was told that the Euro style round pins "looked tacky", and I didn't want to run tracks, but I'd run across a note by Charles Wilson suggesting the use of Dominos for shelf pins, and that seemed like a great idea.
> 
> ...


Peter, yes, that's my experience. I'm just a relatively novice amateur, and, comparing this tool to my hobbies or my friends hobbies I think of the cost of the Domino as a third of a bicycle, or half a camera, or a pair of ski boots, or a day or two with a car at a race track (and that's definitely not counting the cost of the car…), but if I ran a commercial shop I think this thing would pay for itself in less than a week. Floating tenons are now my default joining and aligning technique, even on odd-angled surfaces or where the final holding mechanism is a pocket screw.

Russel, thanks, this whole house is going to be an interesting set of communications on what each of us likes and doesn't like. The one I'm really looking forward to is doing built-ins for the office/guest room. We've agreed that it's going to have a cherry "man room" sort of aesthetic, but neither of us likes the acres of paneling that's common to that theme. I suspect we'll end up with something that's a mix between barrister office and Japanese shoji screens, but the drawings as we go that direction sure are fun…


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *How I cut my shelf pins*
> 
> For the cabinets, I wanted movable shelves. I was told that the Euro style round pins "looked tacky", and I didn't want to run tracks, but I'd run across a note by Charles Wilson suggesting the use of Dominos for shelf pins, and that seemed like a great idea.
> 
> ...


A correspondent points out in private email that there's a Rockler jig to do the shelf pins for $35, although I think I'd have tried to use this project to justify the the Festool hole drilling kit (although I already have many of those parts, I'd just need the guide plate and a few stops) and a new guide rail.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *How I cut my shelf pins*
> 
> For the cabinets, I wanted movable shelves. I was told that the Euro style round pins "looked tacky", and I didn't want to run tracks, but I'd run across a note by Charles Wilson suggesting the use of Dominos for shelf pins, and that seemed like a great idea.
> 
> ...


A correspondent points out in private email that there's a Rockler jig to do the Euro style shelf pins for $35, although I think I'd have tried to use this project to justify the the Festool hole drilling kit (although I already have many of those parts, I'd just need the guide plate and a few stops) and a new guide rail.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

*352 holes*

   I was telling people that it was over 400 holes, but though the drawers are about 27×22, the actual grid for the pot separators in the bottoms of these drawers is only 16×22. Still, the enormity of just how many holes I'd set myself up to drill only sunk in after the first hundred. I'd clamped two of these together with a sheet of pegboard on top for stability, and used 1½" of maple block drilled out on the drill press to keep my bit vertical. I put it on a sheet of cheap ply to help reduce tear-out, but if I ever do this again (and haven't built a CNC router to do it with), I'll not only clamp the bottom layer in too, but I'll also use a brad point bit.

However, the bottoms will be hidden, so that's okay. Need to hit 'em with the 220 grit sandpaper, and a coat or three of poly, and then we have pot drawers in the kitchen. Separators will be ¼" steel rod.

Same content at my personal site.


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## oldworld124 (Mar 2, 2008)

DanLyke said:


> *352 holes*
> 
> I was telling people that it was over 400 holes, but though the drawers are about 27×22, the actual grid for the pot separators in the bottoms of these drawers is only 16×22. Still, the enormity of just how many holes I'd set myself up to drill only sunk in after the first hundred. I'd clamped two of these together with a sheet of pegboard on top for stability, and used 1½" of maple block drilled out on the drill press to keep my bit vertical. I put it on a sheet of cheap ply to help reduce tear-out, but if I ever do this again (and haven't built a CNC router to do it with), I'll not only clamp the bottom layer in too, but I'll also use a brad point bit.
> 
> ...


That's a lot of drilling. You might think about having a cabinet shop drill the holes with a line boring machine for the next go around. Line borers have lots of bits, ( some have 2 rows ) They can drill


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *352 holes*
> 
> I was telling people that it was over 400 holes, but though the drawers are about 27×22, the actual grid for the pot separators in the bottoms of these drawers is only 16×22. Still, the enormity of just how many holes I'd set myself up to drill only sunk in after the first hundred. I'd clamped two of these together with a sheet of pegboard on top for stability, and used 1½" of maple block drilled out on the drill press to keep my bit vertical. I put it on a sheet of cheap ply to help reduce tear-out, but if I ever do this again (and haven't built a CNC router to do it with), I'll not only clamp the bottom layer in too, but I'll also use a brad point bit.
> 
> ...


Cool! Thanks for the suggestion. I keep forgetting that cabinet shops are happy to do partial jobs.

I've got the motors and controllers lying around, and I keep threatening to build a worm-driven CNC router, but that project is further down the list than little things like "the kitchen". Farming that project out next time (and I may end up building these drawers again, 'cause I'm also not completely happy with the Apple Ply I'm using for them) would probably result in cleaner holes on the back side, too.


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## CabinetGiant (Aug 19, 2009)

DanLyke said:


> *352 holes*
> 
> I was telling people that it was over 400 holes, but though the drawers are about 27×22, the actual grid for the pot separators in the bottoms of these drawers is only 16×22. Still, the enormity of just how many holes I'd set myself up to drill only sunk in after the first hundred. I'd clamped two of these together with a sheet of pegboard on top for stability, and used 1½" of maple block drilled out on the drill press to keep my bit vertical. I put it on a sheet of cheap ply to help reduce tear-out, but if I ever do this again (and haven't built a CNC router to do it with), I'll not only clamp the bottom layer in too, but I'll also use a brad point bit.
> 
> ...


Excellent Collection! Great Article.This can be done only when we have a good  cabinetgiant quality cabinets  in the Kitchen.Thank you.


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## CabinetGiant (Aug 19, 2009)

DanLyke said:


> *352 holes*
> 
> I was telling people that it was over 400 holes, but though the drawers are about 27×22, the actual grid for the pot separators in the bottoms of these drawers is only 16×22. Still, the enormity of just how many holes I'd set myself up to drill only sunk in after the first hundred. I'd clamped two of these together with a sheet of pegboard on top for stability, and used 1½" of maple block drilled out on the drill press to keep my bit vertical. I put it on a sheet of cheap ply to help reduce tear-out, but if I ever do this again (and haven't built a CNC router to do it with), I'll not only clamp the bottom layer in too, but I'll also use a brad point bit.
> 
> ...


For more details follow the Link:
http://www.cabinetgiant.com


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

*Pot Drawers*



No, "pot drawers" not a reference to where I might keep my stash.

The 352 holes I drilled the weekend before last paid off, after a little bit of rework 'cause I miscalculated the height of the slides, I bent up some dividers and screwed in the drawer slides, and loaded up the drawers. More pictures here.


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## WhattheChuck (Aug 26, 2008)

DanLyke said:


> *Pot Drawers*
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> 
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Cool-but that sure looks like a lot of work.


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

DanLyke said:


> *Pot Drawers*
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Nice work.


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## jim1953 (Nov 18, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *Pot Drawers*
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Nice job how long will the pans stay in place lookin good


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## roman (Sep 28, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *Pot Drawers*
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KISS


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## buildandfish (Apr 15, 2010)

DanLyke said:


> *Pot Drawers*
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This is what we are looking for. Thanks for posting.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

*Whoops*

With Yardbirds going out of business, I bought a bunch of stuff to run some new electrical (although even with the discount their wire was no cheaper than other sources, so I had to pick and choose), and in the process of picking conduit paths through the garage I cleaned out the shop.

So yesterday I milled a whole bunch of wood into door frames. I'd picked up a bunch of eastern hard maple off of Craigslist, random sizes, about 5'; lengths, so I took the ones closest to my door frame size and milled 'em from 13/16" down to 3/4" and ripped them down to 2 1/4". I started laying them out for where they went on the cabinets, making sure that the grain continued from one door into another, when I realized that I was doing it wrong: The grain should also continue between adjacent parallel elements.

Whoops. Don't know how it took me that long to figure that out. So now I have a bunch of milled materials, only half of which I'll be using for the purpose I milled 'em for, but if I take another smidgen off they'll make good shelf edges, and the resulting thin strip will be good for edging other plywood.

And I generated a monster bucket o' sawdust for the garden:


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

*Doors in!*

Still need to do the drawer fronts, but the doors are in! And they are kinda snazzy, if I do say so myself. Note, in particular, the grain matching.


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

DanLyke said:


> *Doors in!*
> 
> Still need to do the drawer fronts, but the doors are in! And they are kinda snazzy, if I do say so myself. Note, in particular, the grain matching.


Dan 
that wall already look impressive in its way of talking to people 
are you going to redo the hole kitchen like this
anyway I look forward to see it finished

Dennis


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *Doors in!*
> 
> Still need to do the drawer fronts, but the doors are in! And they are kinda snazzy, if I do say so myself. Note, in particular, the grain matching.


Dennis, yeah, that's the plan! The struggles in getting these doors done tells me that I need to build my new shop first, but hopefully I'll get the drawer fronts on before I tackle that (the big drawers on that cabinet to the right are going to get frame and panel fronts like the doors).

There's painted white cabinets over the stove, and then a whole other wall (with sink and refrigerator) that need new cabinets, but as I'm doing more woodworking my style is evolving, so though the doors are going to stay roughly the same I want to do more interesting things with the frame and trim.

Which also reminds me, I need to make some progress on the ceiling molding for those cabinets too.

And, of course, that floor has got to get replaced by something; we're looking at people's experiences with engineered wood floors in higher humidity places. We don't like the look of laminates like Pergo, the rest of the house has 5/8" white oak (was probably 3/4 to begin with, but a couple of refinishings…), but we know that solid wood on a kitchen floor is pretty doomed.


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

DanLyke said:


> *Doors in!*
> 
> Still need to do the drawer fronts, but the doors are in! And they are kinda snazzy, if I do say so myself. Note, in particular, the grain matching.


about your floors , we have a company here in Denmark that makes laminated woodfloors
but its solid wood thrugh the lamination (if I just can remember the name of them)

when I remodelled our kitchen 10 years ago the wife wanted cork on the floor 
now I think it was a good choice considering how much they have handled of different things
not that I like the way the floor is build up (partikelsheedgoods just under the cork)
but the cork has a niice look , sound when you walk on it the squares of cork I used had
a layer of some plastic cote of somthing so I didn´t need to lacquer it
but I realy wood have liked to have a woodfloor instead….....LOL

take care
Dennis


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## matt1970 (Mar 28, 2007)

DanLyke said:


> *Doors in!*
> 
> Still need to do the drawer fronts, but the doors are in! And they are kinda snazzy, if I do say so myself. Note, in particular, the grain matching.


WOW…Can you give us some bigger pictures??? These look awesome…


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