I haven't updated this thread in a while but want to keep it alive until I have the final glamour shots.. Of course the project is still not entirely done but it's fully functional and in-use at least. Had to divert my attention to some outdoor projects.
Here are some pix of how I trimmed out the island with a slat-wall look.
For this I bought a bunch of 8/4 flatsawn white oak and ripped it into 3/4" strips (which made the strips rift/QS). I then used a trim router to put a very slight round-over on each edge and sanded them individually.
Then I glued and pin-nailed (from behind) each slat onto a piece of 1/4" white oak plywood. The long side behind the 4 chairs is actually 4 individual doors, so I had to carefully align things and cut the the panels first so the slats overlap the seams, such that when the doors are closed, it's completely invisible that there are even doors there, with consistent 3/4" gaps between each slat. That worked out surprisingly well. Similar on the short-end by the gas range there's an access panel that clips in place with some dowels and magnets, completely invisible but when removed allows easy access to the gas connection and electrical for the range.
The finish was more of the Rubio Monocoat, applied by hand with a piece of white scotchbrite pad. The 3/4" gap was plenty to get my finger in there to cleanly buff off any excess.
Also made the "drawer in drawer" for the utensils. I plan on making a fancy maple insert for the silverware, but for now it's just these plastic orange things.
STILL need to get around to the subway tile backsplash at the sink and wet-bar, plus trimming out the windows and doors and installing the pocket door. Also any cabinets that reach near ceiling height will be trimmed to the ceiling with oak. Need to make the tall fridge-end panel and those two paint-grade doors on the upper cabinet by the sink, originally were going to be painted, but we're still hemming and hawing over what to do with them, thinking I'll just make two replacements out of the same oak but my wife suggested maybe carrying a color from the surrounding room to that spot just as an accent. who knows..
Lastly, the wet-bar, originally the cabinet on the left was going to be the appliance garage and the right side would have only floating shelves, but then we found this fancy coffee machine on the used market for a great deal, so now we decided to add another cabinet on the right side similar to what's on the left to act as the appliance garage (to hide the toaster/blender) and then probably tile and floating shelves in between.. Still working out exactly what we want to do in that space. Open to any suggestions!
Oh, and the cabinet hardware is installed too in these pix (most of it at least in these pix, it's all there as I write this), they weren't there in the last update.
One day at a time, as they say!
