Thinking Inside the Box

My kitchen cabinet project is coming along nicely, although I can already feel it stalling out before all the doors are done. Here is the "before" photo. We moved in about 6 years ago and have been roughing it with a couple of cabinets and the blue hutch that I built in my Manhattan kitchen 11 years ago. The hutch was my first project with milk paint and took up just about the entire kitchen.


We put the fan in last summer. It's amazing how you can cease to see exposed ducting and 2X4's after such a short while. As you can see, counterspace and storage are sadly lacking in this part of the room. Below is one of the cabinets, just about ready to go in.

I joined the carcass together with tongue and grooves that I made on the tablesaw. I like the accuracy of the alignment etc...but beyond that, I pocket screwed the faceframes together and nailed them onto the boxes. Down and dirty for sure. The shelves are edged with solid strips to prevent sagging and to give an opportunity for decoration. I use a Stanley 45 (very fun) to plane a bead into the front of each shelve, after all, I had to feel like I was woodworking!


This box has a bay for some shelves on the left and drawers on the right. I will be dovetailing the drawers, mainly because I need the practice.
Below is a sketch of my plan for the countertop. I plan to use breadboard ends to keep the cherry flat and for a nice detail.


I cut this cherry off of our land about 5 years ago and had it milled into 1 1/2" thick boards. Even though some of them are 15" across of clear heartwood, I sawed them down to prevent outrageous warpage, it is a kitchen after all.


And here's the Chairnotes covergirl in a different sort of eating venue. When I saw her head out the door in my dingy old Carhartts and mud boots I must admit that I swooned a bit.


We still don't know if Maggie is "in a family way" yet, apparently young goats play their cards close to the chest, but we have high hopes for kids this spring!
I'll post the "after" photos of the kitchen when the counter goes in. I'm afraid that if I wait for all the doors to be done that we could be here a while.