Category: Home Improvement

Affordable ways to update your home.

I Like Big Drawers and I Cannot Lie

Published on by Our Humble Abode29 Comments

Due to the impending holiday, we’ve been slacking in the kitchen update department.  Shame on us.  Spank us and take away our birthdays.  Yesterday, we did share a cabinet painting tutorial, but I know you really want to see the installed, finished product.  Am I right?  After locking myself in the basement bedroom for several hours each day for a week, I finally finished priming and painting the fronts and backs of 20 drawers.

We’ve found the easiest way to install drawer fronts is by first marking and drilling holes for the handles.  Use a spacer as a guide to keep the spacing even.  In our case, we wanted a 3/4 inch reveal on all sides of the stack, so a few scraps of 3/4 inch plywood worked wonderfully.  While Handy Sammy held the drawer front in place, Ben put a screw in the holes he drilled for the handles.

For spacing between the drawers Ben used two quarters stacked together and followed the same process.  Once he liked the spacing, he went back and screwed the fronts on from inside the drawers.

Easy enough, right?

Yeah, kinda.  Some how, I don’t quite know because Ben is perfect, he misjudged the depth and screwed into the center, popping the screw through the drawer front.  He said he did it to show he is human because that fact is easily forgotten.  Haha, nerd!

In a few hours, we finished fourteen of the twenty fronts, including the stove side:

What a big difference it makes.  The lower drawers are finished.  Minus minor touch ups like one screw pop and scratches.  Oh, and you can see we decided on two handles for each of the large drawers.  Just one seemed dinky.

Ben and I agreed the handles looked better centered on each drawer.

You can see the small stack was still lacking in the drawer front department.  And, where’s Vincent?

And, here’s a look at our false front covered trash drawer.  Notice we framed out the upper cabinets, too.

We’ve got three more false fronts on the back of the peninsula.

Obviously, the other side has real drawers, and there’s also a stack of drawer fronts opening in the dining room.  Rather than a blank like the end panels, we decided to go with the false fronts.  Ben drilled the holes for the handles first, attached the handles, then screwed the panels on from inside the cabinet.

The functional drawers are customized, too.  Everything looks normal behind the curtain, right?

Wrong!  The protruding window sill called for a smaller top drawer to avoid smashing into granite.  This is the only drawer front we didn’t center the handle on.  Instead, we wanted the handles to line up to so everything looks the same.

There’s no denying it, the kitchen is starting to look finished.  Lower cabinets: done!

We found a mini microwave from Home Depot, too.  Man was than an ordeal.  It just fits in the cabinet.  When Ben told me he built the cabinet 20 inches wide, I assumed that was the inside dimension.  You know what they say about assuming…  The inside dimension is 18 inches wide and most microwaves are 18 or 19 inches.  So we started thinking of different places we could put a microwave.

Option 1: Inside one of the bar cabinets.

But those cabinets aren’t deep enough because the cabinet is built around the support post.  Next idea.

Option 2: Removing a drawer to add a microwave hidden behind a door.  We have two small-ish drawer stacks to choose from, but in the peninsula.  The front-runner to remove was the middle drawer opening on the dining side.

But it seemed inconvenient to microwave something in the dining room.  If we did this, we’d also lost a fair amount to storage space in the depth of the cabinet.  We would have the same problem if we put the microwave in the middle drawer of the kitchen peninsula.

Option 3:  Build a buffet to house a microwave and other stuff.  When we bought the marble for our dining table, we also bought a piece to top off a buffet.  Then, we gave the small desk to my sister and liked how open the room felt.

Again, not the most convenient location, and building another piece of furniture isn’t going to happen right now.

Option 4:  Build a new, wider upper cabinet to fit a microwave.  I may have mentioned this idea to Ben which he very quickly rejected.  I don’t blame him, after all, we had just added the trim detail.

Option 5:  Live without a microwave.  At first, I thought this wouldn’t be very difficult, but how would I make a baked potato?  Certainly not the old-fashioned way in the oven.

We’re so glad we found a microwave to fit in the intended cabinet.  High-fives abounded.  I never thought I’d be that excited about a cheap, ugly microwave.

That’s what we’ve been up to.  Holiday decorating, kitchen updating, and Minnesota planning.  What’s new with you?  Any kitchen work going on?  Holiday decorating and planning?  Are you going to stop by Goodwill to meet up with us?  Do you prefer a hidden microwave?  Ever gotten excited about a small appliance?

On the Drawer Front

Published on by Our Humble Abode15 Comments

Yesterday, we shared some of our kitchen progress.  On Sunday, Ben the builder and Handy Sammy worked on drawer fronts.  We have a post in the works detailing how we made our own cabinets, drawers, drawer fronts, and cabinet doors, so I won’t get into too much detail right now.  Basically, Ben cut a sheet of 1/2 inch thick MDF to the drawer sizes.  Then he cut countless strips of 1/4 inch thick MDF into 2 1/2 inch wide strips.  Then, he glues…

and nails (using the same pin nails) the thin strips on the 1/2 inch MDF.

Wipe away the excess glue and you’ve got a drawer front.

Repeat these steps twenty or so times and you’re almost done.

Ben likes to run each edge through the table saw to get everything perfectly lined up.  Once that’s done, he passes the unfinished fronts on to me.  Montana winter is setting in, so I hauled all 20 drawer fronts to the large basement bedroom to get started on filling the holes and seams.

In a way, I’m happy Ben used pin nails.  The holes are tiny, which makes filling easier.  At the same time, it makes finding the nail holes much more difficult.  Can you spy all six nail holes in this picture?

The brown flecks in the MDF make it difficult to decide whether I see a nail hole or just a spot.  But, I just filled every hole and crack I saw.  I like to use my finger to fill nail holes and a small spatula to fill the seams.

Two episodes of Bones later, I finished.

With the fronts!  I still have to fill all four sides of the drawers.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to fill some seams.  I think I’m going to go crazy after that.  After that, tons of sanding, priming and painting.  Yep, I’ve got plenty to keep me busy.  And you thought our kitchen was chugging right along.  This is going to take a while.

Does filling holes, priming, and painting drive you batty?  How about waiting for paint to dry?  I’m so not looking forward to all that painting, but I want pretty drawers.  Wish me luck.  Hopefully we’ll have something to share in a week or two.

On the Up and Up

Published on by Our Humble Abode17 Comments

Over the long weekend, we tackled a few kitchen projects.  Items highlighted in light blue were done before.  Those highlighted in dark blue were finished this weekend.

  • Buy all appliances: sink, stove, vent hood, dishwasher
  • Tear out the upper cabinets and soffit {more on that here}
  • Add support on load bearing wall before tearing out
  • Knock down the wall between the living room and kitchen {more on that here}
  • Install the vent hood {more on that here}
  • Remove the lower cabinets, counter tops, and sink
  • Rip out the tile floor and sub floor {more on that here}
  • Install the new hardwood floors {more on that here}
  • Build toe kick bases, wire everything for lights, replace the cabinets and sink {more on that here}
  • Get the new stove in place and hooked up {more on that here}
  • Add the cabinet above the fridge and frame it out {more on that here}
  • Install the new dishwasher {more on that here}
  • Build the five remaining drawers we’ve waited on (we needed to see how things were in place before we could build one drawer in the dining room, the trash can pull out, and the under the sink drawer)  {more on that here}
  • Fill, sand, prime and paint said drawers
  • Install every drawer, 16 total 
  • Decide on sconces and buy them {more on that here}
  • Buy the wood for the counters 
  • Haul the wood slabs to a cabinet shop to have them sand both sides smooth {more on that here}
  • Cut the wood to fit and install the counters {more on that here}
  • Add decorative face trim to all cabinets for a smooth, pretty, even front {more on that here}
  • Fill, sand, prime, and paint all cabinet faces {more on that here}
  • Install the toe kicks and rope lighting
  • Hang the upper cabinets
  • Build the drawer fronts
  • Buy bar stools {more on the debate here}
  • Fill, sand, prime, and paint the drawer fronts
  • Install the drawer fronts and hardware pulls
  • Add crown molding to the top of the cabinets
  • Cut shelves for the cabinets
  • Build the cabinet doors, including two glass front doors
  • More filling, sanding, priming, and painting of the cabinet doors
  • Sand the ceiling and walls smooth
  • Prime and paint the kitchen and living room.  Probably the dining room too.
  • Add lights: sconces, light over the sink, and recessed light halos
  • Trim out the posts and door frames
  • Decide whether we want to add decorative trim to the vent hood or paint it to match the wall color
  • Install the pretty new marble tile backsplash
  • Put everything back in place and enjoy

For the toe kicks, Ben cut pieces of 1/4 inch thick MDF to 3 1/2 inches wide.  I primed and painted them with the cabinet paint.  This was so much easier than installing the toe kicks then priming and painting.  After letting everything cure, we were ready for install.  We decided to use small pin nails to hold the toe kick covers in place.

These are super tiny nails, so we didn’t have to fill holes, sand, prime and do touch up paint.  Though, I do have to paint the ends which were cut.

With the toe kick covers in place, Ben cut and placed the U channel for the rope lights.  I didn’t get a picture of these, but basically it is a small plastic channel with a strong adhesive backing.  Simply cut to length, peel off the backing, stick in place, and snap the rope lighting in.

When standing, you can’t see the actual light strips.  I just wanted to show you what everything looks like.

At night the kitchen glows like Christmas.  I love it.  One of my favorite things about Christmas are the lights.  Now we have them year round.

Fortunately, the toe kick and lighting didn’t take more than an hour, so Ben got to work installing the two upper cabinets. Here’s the larger one to the left of the sink.

And the slightly smaller cabinet on the right side of the sink.

You can kind of see we painted the insides of the cabinets a light blue.  The same blue we used in the dining room and theater room, actually.  What can I say, I love that color!

Sorry, I couldn’t find my smaller camera to take pictures of the entire kitchen, but here’s what you can see from the living room.

The plan is to hide a small microwave (a .7 cubic foot one to be exact) in the cabinet to the left of the sink.  The lower right side will probably house a toaster and/or blender.  Which means we need outlets inside the cabinets.

According to Montana code, we also need outlets every four feet, so we installed a light switch and outlet on the outside of each cabinet.  The switches are for lights over the sink.

As you can see, we still have to cut, prime, paint, and install the shelves before the upper cabinets are functional, but it’s a good start.  So that’s what happened on Saturday.  I’ll share Sunday’s progress tomorrow.

Now I’m wondering, do any of you have appliance garages?  Or cabinets that extend to the counter?  Are the inside of your cabinets painted a different color than the outsides?

All Oiled Up

Published on by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

And ready for the body building competition.  No, not me, our counters are all oiled up.  Now they’re ready for competition.  Last week, Ben sanded the filled areas, which means we could finally coat every counter with mineral oil.  We still have more oiling to do, but they’re looking good so far.

So far, we’ve applied four coats of oil, letting it soak in completely.  Between each coat, we lightly ‘sand’ the surface with super fine steel wool.

Our goal is to get the counters well oiled before installing the upper cabinets.  It will be much more difficult to oil thoroughly with the cabinets resting on the counters.

While the surface isn’t impermeable, it does hold up well.  Right now, we’re careful not to leave water spots or other semi-liquid stuff on the counters for too long.

As for our home-made wood filler, it worked quite well.  The seam on the peninsula is barely visible.

A small crack on the counter by the stove filled in nicely, too.  Ben accidentally hit the cabinet with the sander, so I’ll have to repaint this cabinet bay.

The peninsula had a crack as well.  These are from the center of the tree, but we couldn’t cut this out.

Because the crack wraps around the end of this piece, the color difference is most visible at the end cut.

Ben had to make a few special cuts by the stove because the top sits above the wood.  We also cut a 45 degree angle so the counter didn’t stick out beyond the stove.

Sorry for the lack of kitchen progress posts, too.  We have had cold weather, so Ben can’t do much work in the garage.  Yesterday, we finally had a day above freezing, but we used the nice weather to rake leaves.  Fortunately Wednesday is our trash pick up.  I bet our garbage men loved us because we left them this little gift.

With about ten more bags on the other side of our driveway.

What about you, how has your weather been?  Raked your leaves yet?  Do your kids request photo shoots when you pull out your camera?  Do they request to see their pictures?

Counter Productive

Published on by Our Humble Abode35 Comments

Counter productive is actually counter productive in describing the progress we’ve made with the counters this weekend.  In fact, we have every countertop installed.  Of course with wood jokes a plenty.  My favorites, “Don’t hit me with your wood” said to Ben while holding the door open for him.  And Ben asking me if I like his wood.  Yes, yes I do.  Vincent even made an unintentional dirty joke telling Ben he “kissed his back door” while waiting to open the door for him.  Bahaha.  It’s a good thing he has no clue what he said.

I wish I could say the counter cutting and installation was quick and simple.  In actuality, Ben spent the better part of yesterday (and a few hours on Saturday) working to get er done.  It would have taken a million times longer if Ben hadn’t had the slabs sanded at the cabinet shop on Tuesday.  Speaking of the cabinet shop, Ben picked up the piece for the bar top on Wednesday.  Have a look.

With phase one complete, Ben started phase two, cutting the pieces to size.  I took the picture above after Ben had started cutting the bar top, but you can really see the difference of grain.  Because Ben is so awesome, he was able to get the bar  top in on Saturday night.

You can bet we wasted no time oiling that baby up.  And it’s amazing how different Sappelle looks with a coat of oil.

I love how much character the oil brings out.  And how rich the tone is.

There are a few knots, which look great and add tons of character.

The cuts around the post are snug, which is perfect because some of it will be visible even after installing the trim.

And here she is now, patiently awaiting bar stools to complete the look.

Ben worried most about the 45 degree angle he had to cut for the peninsula seam.  He cut the long side, brought it in to check the angle.

Luckily, it was perfect, so he brought in the adjoining piece.

He secured the small piece next to the sink first using silicone caulking along the sink seam.  This piece was the first to go in because we wanted the line against the sink to be straight.  If we had installed the larger piece of the peninsula first, it could have shifted the smaller slab.  Ben did have a slight problem when screwing it in.  Bubinga is a hard wood, which is the reason we chose it for our counters.  Because it is so dense, a few screws snapped off.  To help this, Ben drilled pilot holes with the wood in place, going through the cabinet top and into the counter.  I had the task of standing on a slightly bowed seam to keep the joints flush.

(Don’t mock my Flintstones feet.)  While I was up there, I thought I’d give you a never before seen and probably never will see again angle of the kitchen, with living room and front door beyond.  We hadn’t finished the pieces by the range.

Ben moved onto install the rest of the tops.  The piece above the dishwasher went in the same as the angled chunk to the left.

With the two pieces securely in their new home, we worked to fill the slight gap.

We wanted the filler to be as close of a match as possible, to keep the seam from being noticed.  The guy at the cabinet shop told Ben they usually make their filler out of sawdust and super glue.  We spread some glue into the crack (haha) and sprinkled saw dust over the top, pressing in place.

While it was still wet, we started scraping the excess off and lightly sanded it.

Still not happy with it, so I mixed wood glue and more sawdust in a container until it had a peanut butter like consistency.

A few other pieces had small cracks where the wood had split while drying.  We tested the glue/sawdust mixture here.  Once it’s sanded down, it should blend in nicely.

So, folks at home.  If you need a special colored wood filler, try making your own.

We’re still waiting for filler to dry, which we’ll sand and may have to give another coat before we can oil the tops.  The only piece that didn’t have any areas to fill was this one on the left side of the stove.  Pretty, huh?

But we couldn’t wait until the rest were ready for oil.  Just like the bar top, the oil enhanced so much of the grain and darkened up the color.  The wood absorbed the oil differently.  I think the darker areas are softer, so they drink the oil up quicker.

Once absorbed completely, the finish is even and pretty.  I couldn’t resist putting a few marble tiles against it.

The colors of the counters and bar top are very similar, despite coming from two different species of trees.

This was a huge item crossed off the to do list.

  • Install the new dishwasher.
  • Sand the ceiling and walls smooth
  • Build the five remaining drawers we’ve waited on (we needed to see how things were in place before we could build one drawer in the dining room, the trash can pull out, and the under the sink drawer)
  • Fill, sand, prime and paint said drawers
  • Install every drawer, 16 total
  • Buy the wood for the counters.  
  • Haul the wood slabs to a cabinet shop to have them sand both sides smooth
  • Cut the wood to fit and install the counters
  • Hang the upper cabinets
  • Add decorative face trim to all cabinets for a smooth, pretty, even front
  • Fill, sand, prime, and paint all cabinet faces
  • Build the drawer and cabinet fronts, including two glass front doors
  • More filling, sanding, priming, and painting of the cabinet fronts
  • Install the drawer fronts and hardware pulls
  • Prime and paint the kitchen and living room.  Probably the dining room too.
  • Add lights: sconces, recessed light halos, and the rope lighting
  • Trim out the posts and door frames
  • Add crown molding to the top of the cabinets
  • Decide whether we want to add decorative trim to the vent hood or paint it to match the wall color
  • Install the pretty new marble tile backsplash
  • Put everything back in place and enjoy
We’ll share more pictures and details once we’ve filled, sanded, and oiled everything.
What did you do this weekend?  Have you ever made your own wood filler?  Installed your own counter tops?  Do you get school girl for Justin Bieber excited over home improvement projects?