Kitchen Hutch Build

Sprung

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Assembled the upper portion today. No pics of that as I was working on that in the basement workshop, where it's a small enough space that I couldn't step back far enough to get a picture of even half of it.

But I did get this pic - had to clean out the corners for a stopped rabbet on the top, for where the backer panel will sit in.

KH33.jpg

Got the garage warmed back up during today so that tonight I could start applying finish to the parts that will be clear finished. The top, the inside of the upper cabinet, and the shelves will all be clear finished. The lower case, door, drawer fronts, and the outer portion of the upper cabinet will be milk paint.

Finish is General Finishes Arm-R-Seal.

KH34.jpg

And the underside of the counter top. Yeah, it'll look good - the crotch feather is more pronounced on what will be the top. The knots have a little more figure on the underside, but they were more sound/solid on what will be the top side, hence the orientation of that portion.

KH35.jpg
 

rocky1

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SO uhmmm... How come is the one side 2 inches longer than the other and the shelf centered in both making it like, not real square?
 

Sprung

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SO uhmmm... How come is the one side 2 inches longer than the other and the shelf centered in both making it like, not real square?

Perspective. :sarcastic:

Everything is square, centered, in line, etc.
 

rocky1

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I don't know... It looks kinda crooked if you turn it the other way too! You might better check your measurements again.

matt.jpg
 

Sprung

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As far as a clear finish goes, IMO it's hard to beat General Finishes Arm-R-Seal. Such an easy finish to apply - hard to screw up.

My method of applying Arm-R-Seal is as follows:
Wipe down with denatured alcohol or thinner of your choice to ensure all dust and contaminants are off the piece.
Wipe on. Then right after that lightly wipe the full length of the piece with the same piece of cloth or towel you used to apply the finish.
First coat gets 3 or 4 hours to dry before the next coat. Subsequent coats get two hours.
Before applying the next coat, lightly sand with 600 grit sandpaper - you're not so much sanding as you are removing any sort of nibs in the previous coat. Then wipe down with denatured alcohol to remove dust from sanding - rag doesn't need to be heavily soaked, just dampened enough to be able to collect the dust.
Apply coats 2 and 3, repeating the sanding/wipe down steps between coats.
After the third coat is dry, give it another very light sanding with either 600 or 1000 grit sandpaper and wipe down with denatured alcohol. Then just give it a quick, but gentle wipe with a cloth just lightly dampened with the Arm-R-Seal. You're basically just filling in any sanding scratches with the thinnest of coats. This coat will dry very fast, helping to not collect dust.
If you have any dust nibs after it's all dry, rub/buff it lightly with a piece torn out of a brown paper grocery bag or some 0000 steel wool - I wait at least a few days after the final coat before doing this step. This gives a very smooth finish that just feels great, protects the wood well, but also isn't a thick plastic feeling finishing like a brush on poly. Can buff in some paste wax after this, if desired.

First coat went on the top side of the countertop piece this morning. I'll be sneaking out to the shop for a few minutes every few hours today to put the next coats on.

The two pieces I glued up for the countertop certainly have a lot going for them. Crotch, curl, heartwood/sapwood, spalt. These were the two most figured sections of the boards I pulled from my stack of maple for this project.

KH37.jpg
 

Sprung

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Forgot to add - I usually sand to either 180 or, more often, 220 prior to finishing.
 

Sprung

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Finishing continues whenever I can find a few minutes here and there to work on it. After finishing the one side of the back panel and the inside of the hutch, I attached the back.

@rocky1 - Does this look square now?

KH38.jpg

A little pop of figure on the inside.

KH39.jpg

Masked off where I had already finished with the Arm-R-Seal and applied a coat of shellac.

KH40.jpg

After that was dry on went a coat of white milk paint. Three coats of the same navy blue as the base will follow - hope to get at least a couple of those coats on tomorrow.

KH41.jpg
 

rocky1

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:lol2::lol2::lol2:

I showed that picture to my father the other day, he said... "What in the... That one side is 2" longer than the other!"

I'll be sure to show him the one above that looks almost square.


:lol2::lol2::lol2:
 

Sprung

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Finishing continues. Tonight got the last coat of milk paint on the base portion. It was lightly sanded with 180 grit to knock down any rough spots prior to the last coat. Paint is dry in this picture. Looking a lot better than in the beginning. This will look real nice once oiled.

KH42.jpg

And first coat of the blue went on the upper portion, as well as the drawers fronts and door.

KH43.jpg

KH44.jpg

While I've been working on this, I've also been tasked with reupholstering our kitchen chairs. Have two of the four done so far.

Chairs.jpg
 

Sprung

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This evening got the other two coats of blue on the upper.

KH45.jpg

And moved the base cabinet back out to the garage. Started installing drawer slides. No picture of that.

Tomorrow I hope to get the drawer boxes sanded and a coat of shellac brushed on to them and start installing more hardware and wiring into the base cabinet.
 

Sprung

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Today was a day of progress.

Got drawer slides installed. Full extension, soft close. Bought a pack of 10 sets for about $80 off Amazon - way cheaper than buying 5 individual sets and I still have 5 sets for future projects.

KH47.jpg

Installation was made very easy by a quick set of jigs I put together that let me just set the jig in place and then drill holes for the screws.

KH46.jpg

Also started on the wiring - I'll give more details on that later. No pics of that.

And the finishing has been completed.

After final coat of milk paint:

KH48.jpg

To make the color pop on the milk paint and give it some more protection, I use an oil based finish. Until now I've always used a coat or two of Watco Danish Oil in natural. Downside of that is it takes a couple weeks for it to finish curing/offgassing and for the smell to go away. Wanting an oil finish that would allow me to bring this in the house and get it set up and in use sooner, I decided to try hemp oil. Test piece worked out well, so today on it went.

KH49.jpg

And what it looks like after oil. I wiped it on liberally, let it sit for 20ish minutes, then wiped any excess off. I'll see what it looks like in a day or two and decide if it needs a second application of oil, but so far it's still looking good a few hours later.

KH50.jpg
 

Gdurfey

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You said the milk paint would change, you weren’t kidding. Thanks so much for the time posting all the info and pictures! Can’t wait to show my wife.
 

Sprung

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You said the milk paint would change, you weren’t kidding. Thanks so much for the time posting all the info and pictures! Can’t wait to show my wife.

You're welcome! It's a finish that you have to learn a process and trust the process and carry that process through until completion because throughout most of the process it's just going to not look so great. But a little oil at the end changes everything. My wife and I both prefer the way a piece painted with milk paint looks and feels compared to a piece painted with latex paint.
 

Sprung

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Well, I was on pace to have this done and set up in our kitchen by tomorrow evening. But when I tested the wiring for the lighting it all shorted out and blew out both the power supply and the switch. Wiring diagram for the connectors I purchased was wrong... New power supply and switch ordered, to arrive sometime this next week.
 

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Well, I was on pace to have this done and set up in our kitchen by tomorrow evening. But when I tested the wiring for the lighting it all shorted out and blew out both the power supply and the switch. Wiring diagram for the connectors I purchased was wrong... New power supply and switch ordered, to arrive sometime this next week.
I hate when that happens
 

Sprung

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Since I can't do any more on it until electrical stuffs arrives, I moved it into the house (where I'll be able to do final assembly) so I can work on something else in the garage. It's not all put together yet, and is no longer together like this since I don't want the upper to fall on a kid, but I couldn't resist setting the upper in place to get a first look at it all together. Poor lighting in this area makes it look too dark - there's better lighting where it'll be set up in the kitchen/dining area.

KH51.jpg
 

DKMD

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Looking good, Matt! I love the look and feel of milk paint, and I like that design as well.
 

Sprung

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Well, it has taken me far too long to get back to this and get it finished. But I'm at a point right now where I absolutely had to get it finished this week. So yesterday the drawers got re-fit - a few of them weren't working so well after I installed them a while ago. Door was installed. Drawer fronts installed. Top attached. Last bit of wiring done.

And it's a wrap! There's a few flaws, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I may build a new door for it at some point - in the time between building the door and installing it, this one developed a twist and the lower right corner sticks out about 3/16". But I am overall quite happy with how it turned out. I may try to get some better pics tomorrow, when we'll get some sunlight through the kitchen windows.

KH52.jpg
 
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