Mahogany Veneer Vanity

[jteneyck]

I designed and built this vanity for one of our members using veneer he cut from some beautiful mahogany stock he's been hoarding.



It's built of Baltic birch plywood and the doors and drawer fronts were veneered using Weldwood Plastic Resin Glue in my vacuum bag. The finish is Lockwood's Brown Mahogany water soluble dye, mixed in 2 pints water. I sprayed a light coat and then wiped it with a paper towel to make sure it was as uniform as possible. Prior to that I sanded to 325 grit, raised the grain, and cut the whiskers with 600 grit. I had minimal grain raising from the dye.

The rest of the finish was one light, sprayed coat of Sealcoat shellac followed by 3 sprayed coats of GF's incredibly expensive EnduroVar Satin. The drawers and inside of the right cabinet were done the same minus the dye. The inside of the left cabinet has a coat of shellac, only.

The drawers are 1/2" BB ply joined with 1/2" finger joints and riding on Blum Tandem BluMotion slides.



The handles are from Lee Valley.



The drawer front below the sink tips out on some very clever soft close pivot hinges from RevaShelf. For $12 a pair they are a bargain. The little plastic trays were about $4 each.



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The two doors open with Blum BluMotion hinges and there is a pull out shelf mounted on a Blum bottom mount BluMotion slide specifically designed for this application.





The cabinets sit on a separate base made from 2 layers of 3/4" plywood, a simple ladder type construction. A mahogany toe kick, not shown, will trim out below the cabinets. There are scribe strips on both sides of the cabinet, too, also not shown, that attach to the cabinets with biscuits and a couple of screws from inside the cabinets.

Thanks for looking.

John

[J-W-P]

Looks good John, as always.
The spray and wipe technique for the dye is something I've never tried before. No Transtint this time?

[jteneyck]

Thanks. No, no Transtint this time. I was given the Lockwood's to use so that's what I used. Except that it's only soluble in water it behaved just like Transtint. I strained it just to be sure there were no undissolved clumps, but it had dissolved completely.

The spray and wipe idea occurred to me while I was shooting the dye on a sample and I missed a small spot. Rather than shoot more dye and get too much on everything but the spot I missed I tried wiping it and it worked really well. It picked up enough dye from the wet spots and covered the bare spot. It might have helped even out the piece, too; at least that's what I tell myself. Anyway, it took no time at all.

One more thing about the finishing process. I waited until I had the Sealcoat and one coat of EnduroVar on everything before I sanded again. I used 600 grit on a foam block for the big flat surfaces. EnduroVar is plenty hard enough in 2 hours to sand to a dry powder. I sprayed the shellac and 3 coats of EnduroVar all in one day.

John

[Steve N]

Looks very nice John. That Rev-a-shelf stuff makes some nice cabinet toys

Joel at Tools for Working Wood carries the Lockwood dye, it's nice stuff. I think if you are happy with water based it's the deal.

[Ken Vick]

I can report that the LOML, the customer for the vanity, loves it. You did a great job and we look forward to seeing it in her bathroom in the near future. You created the perfect look for our mid-century modern house. Ken

[jteneyck]

Thanks Ken. As long as the boss is happy, I'm happy, as I am sure your are, too.

John

[cputnam]

John, Endurovar Satin or High Perf satin for book shelves/cabinets?

[jteneyck]

Hi Curt. Bookshelves and other applications with no chemical exposure - HP Poly is great stuff. If you can't spray it would be a good choice. If you can spray, Enduro Clear Poly would also be a great choice. They look the same to me. The difference is that HP Poly has a UV package that reduces light aging, while Enduro Clear Poly is slightly harder and more abrasion and chemical resistant, and spray only.

For applications where chemical durability is important I choose EnduroVar or Enduro Clear Poly. Enduro Clear Poly has slightly lower chemical durability than EnduroVar, but it's still KCMA rated. Both can be used for kitchen and bath applications, table tops, etc. For my own use I usually pick Enduro Clear Poly because it's cheaper and is easier to spray, as easy as HP Poly. But for customer projects I use EnduroVar because of the increased chemical durability.

I hope that helps.

John

[jussi]

John would those hinges (drawer under sink) work with inser doors?

Can you provide a link to both the hinge and drawer slides.

Looks great brw

[Paul K. Murphy]

Nice John!