Kitchen Island

sprague lake, estes park, colorado, 09.19.2004

Kitchen Island The kitchen table and chairs we bought the day we closed on our house didn't have much life left in them. We decided a kitchen island would be more functional and the extra cabinet space would be nice.
These were the two patterns for the top we originally came up with, but decided they were too busy. They are shown wiped down with mineral spirits to get a preview of the finished look.
I then tried some different layouts using Google Sketchup and this is the pattern we settled on. The top is hard maple and cherry.
This was my first attempt doing raised panel doors. After shimming the router bits, they were really quite easy.
Another first for my was building a face frame. My Kreg pocket hole jig made this a quick task.
Here is the finished top and this picture gives the best color representation of it. It was finished using a seal coat of blonde shellac, a couple of coats of Waterlox original sealer/finish, then two coats of a 50/50 mixture of Waterlox original sealer/finish and satin.
I used my Leigh D4 dovetail jig on the drawers.
Here is a picture of the back. The lights and camera make the top look more yellowish than it is.
Overall, I was happy how my first kitchen cabinet project turned out.