Built and installed these walnut cabinets, was going to have pictures of the whole kitchen that I did but the painters showed up before I arrived and had it all torn apart.
The kitchen cabs are cherry. this cab and the entertainment unit are walnut.
Still more detail work on the entertainment center to do.
Doug
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Replies
Nice work, Doug.
Walnut's not one of my favorite woods. Kinda splintery. Gorgeous, though.
When I lived out in Indiana, there was a big hardwood sawmill operation in the next county west, Holmes and Company. They bought hardwood saw logs from all over the midwest and upper midwest, and processed them into kiln dried finished hardwood. I saw some walnut logs there you wouldn't believe.
Holmes shipped most of their sales via container loads to Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
What kind of drawer slides and hinges do you favor? I like the Blum Tandem slides and their Inserta cup hinges.
Looks good Doug.
It appears as though there is no finish on the cabs yet. Will they be sprayed in place??
Tell us about that fireplace.
EricI Love A Hand That Meets My Own,
With A Hold That Causes Some Sensation.
Eric
Cabinets are bare wood, must be a regional thing, down here in Austin TX, all are cabinets get installed raw.
They will be sprayed in place! Where I'm from we would have prefinished 95%, here its just the opposite.
I don't know much about the FP, I know the owners and GC are trying to get the "right stone for the right look." You get to overhear those conversations sometimes! In this case about 5 times a day.
Doug
A talented stonemason can make art out of petrified sh*t.
Can't wait to see the finished pictures!
Is the Walnut finished, or will it be finished in place?
Are you doing the mason work as well?
Looks great!!ADH Carpentry & Woodwork
Quality, Craftsmanship, Detail
Hook
Thanks
Cabinets are raw wood, down here in TX we install and then they finish, don't ask cause I don't know why! <G>
No I'm not doing the fireplace work, just the cabs. Being a mason is hard work, me and my back don't like that sorta stuff!
I probably will not ever see the finish product, because they get finished in place I very seldom ever get to go back out afterwards, on to the next project.
If the cabs are something special I will make a point to try and go out after they are all done, but for the most part I don't see finished products.
We do not do any finish work, that's done by GC's subs.
Doug
we install and then they finish, don't ask cause I don't know why!
For a while, the finish labor was cheaper than a factory finish. This was particularly true in the region around Austin, where it seemed like there was a mom-n-pop cabinet shop on every corner. When a "big" shop meant that it had more than one overhead door, or actually owned a delivery truck, sort of thing. Not much room for a finishing booth.
On top of that, there'd be all sorts of color variation in the various cabinets (and some HO vacilation in what color to finish anything in). Finishing in place means being able to tone the stain-grade work to a uniform color, and get a nice, even top coat.
Add in that thetrim man is sometimes not the cabinet man, so you need a separate finisher to get the two products to match in the one house.
Last, but not least, I personally think it's a bit of a hold-over from when all of the trim & millwork was painted--no wasting paint where it won't be seen.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Cap
There still are mom and pop woodworking shops all over Austin! Seams like it anyway.
I think your right on the finish work. It just seams odd to me coming from a place where all the finish is put on before it goes out.
Doug
Doug
That must have been unique to your area. Here in Des Moines, pretty much all custom cabinets are finished on site. I can't think of any of the cabinet shops that have finishing capabilities or can even sub it out.
BTW, very nice work. And I like walnut. <g>
Barry E-Remodeler
Edited 2/4/2005 7:54 pm ET by Barry E
Berry
Almost every cabinet shop that I know of prefinishes there cabs in the Iowa City/CR area.
That's not to say 100%, we did some finish on site. Just not all of it.
Why is it hard to prefinish, the cabinets that I have shown are nothing more than a bunch of boxes and some trim. Don't need to big of a finish booth for that.
BTW, there are several cabinet shops in DesMoines that finish there cabinets in house.
The painter on this particular job is from Conn. His brother is a GC there and says that every thing that they put in comes prefinished. I wouldn't want to make a blanket statement that all work in Conn. is prefinished though.
I do agree that its not 100% for either method in any particular area, hell nothing is that uniform.
As an example, here is a fire place mantel(posted picture) with entertainment center that went out prefinished, once installed we walked away and the next day there was an open house!
Hell I'm just one person that has seen a small sample of the stuff that gets done around town, who knows, it may be completely opposite just across the street.
Thanks for the compliment
Doug
There still are mom and pop woodworking shops all over Austin! Seams like it anyway
Which makes it a huge muddle in Travis Co., sometimes. Try and sell a product and you're getting "buzz' back where they're comparing your product to 3/8" LDPB Tripac KDs, AND, the local dude on the corner, who is cuting the doors out of the same sheet of birch-faced ply, and lip-moulding them to go back on the original sheet "like a face frame" . . .
Don't miss that at all.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Gene
Thanks
Hardware on this is just Blum full extensions and cup hinges.
We do a lot of tandems, I prefer them for the look, or lack of it! I guess these people just don't deserve them!
I'm originally from IA, I know all about the big walnut logs in the midwest! I have a couple fair sizes ones stickered in my garage back in IA right now.
Doug
I'm not a fan of walnut or cherry, but those are some sharp looking cabinets.
Nice work, Doug.
jt8
Our lives improve only when we take chances -- and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves. -- Walter Anderson
Gorgeous. Walnut IS one of my favorite woods, and those are really pretty. They are going to be spectacular once finished. Keep posting those pics.
Doug,
Beautiful work. You ought to ask for a raise!
Remember I still need a trimmer in April. Let me know where to send that plane ticket back to IA. :)
regards,
Dennis
Dennis
You ought to ask for a raise!
That's funny! I work for the tightest man in Texas!
Actually I get paid OK, I took a big pay cut to come to this job but I work for a guy that hands us some plans and then stays the hell out of the way and lets us have at it.
I guess that's worth something.
Don't tempt me with that ticket talk! About April it will start to warm up around here and I could be persuaded to come back to Ia. with little effort.
Doug
Doug: I love those walnut cabinets you made. The inset doors add that extra craftsman built touch.
Stan
Edited 2/4/2005 9:49 pm ET by Stan Foster
Thanks Stan
I have always liked the inset doors myself. They take a bit more time to make but really not that difficult, just have to make things square!
Doug
Nice work, Doug, real nice.
Out here in Washington most millwork is installed after it is finished. Way to tough to control the environment onsite.
Jim
Yea controlled environment!
The guy that is going to finish this cabinet is going to go out in the drive way, spray the doors and drawers and then carry them inside, stand them up against the wall, sand and repeat!
I don't know how he can call that a custom finish job.
I think he said he is going to spray poly, but the owners don't want the finish to yellow.....Oh well!
We got our money so what the f.........
I don't think all finish people are like this one, I think I may give that impression a lot but it probably isn't all that bad out there.
Most of the finish crews here don't have a shop so that means they have to do it on site.
We don't do any finish work which doesn't break my heart but it does seam strange to me.
Thanks
Doug
A few years ago I remember reading a magazine article about applying finishes to trim. Might have been an article about water based finishes, or maybe spraying finishes instead of brushing, or simply a finish primer, I don't remember. But what I DO remember was a photo of someone spraying outdoors on sawhorses.
Unreal, man.
It's just not that hard to put a fan in a window and tent off part of the shop if you don't have a dedicated room for finishing. Especially with any slow drying finish (make that "bug and dust magnet").
Doug,
A very timely post.
I have a library that was originally planned with one wall as floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall library shelving and the other three walls wainscotting. All originally planned to be in walnut.
The project is now slowly slipping towards paint-grade birch ply carcasses and poplar face frames. Here in CT, more often than not it's wood grain floors but painted trim and built-ins. Not at all a step down in quality...just the prefferred look.
I didn't fight it that much because I really don't consider myself to be a "fine furniture" type of guy.
Your pics are giving me a bit of inspiration to get back to the original plan.
Nice work!
Mongo
Mongo
Thanks
I prefer painted woodwork to stain grade about 75% of the time.
Kitchen cabs are one exception. Dens/libraries are another.
I like to see the profiles in the wood, not the grain.
Doug
Oak is one wood who's grain I don't like. I'm not sure if it's the open pores or the common use of the wood...but I tolerate oak floors, and despise generic oak kitchen cabinets.
Yeah, a little oak goes a long way - pretty heavy looking, and way overused these past 20 years or so.
I feel the same way about oak. But I love quartersawn white oak as seen in Stickley furniture pieces.
The use of oak millwork and doors seems to be a regional thing, and greatly preferred in the middle midwest. I've seen some overblown places out there that make one feel he's in a casket.
Gene
I grew up in the middle midwest, and your right, oak every where.
Down here in TX it seems to be a bit of a luxury. When I tell people that I don't like it they look at me funny.
I have seen so much of it that it does nothing for me.
Like mongo said, I tolerate it on floors but that's about it.
And I agree with you about quartersawn, although not a stikley fan I do appreciate the look of the stuff.
Doug