Kitchen Update
Golly. There has been a lot to take in since my last post about the kitchen.
Here are the updates so far:
SINK
The quote for a new soapstone sink, including crating and shipping, would be a scary $3,300.
Devyn suggested that I could make my own. And I thought: Hey! Why not? Which led me to this video:
Well, that all looked WAY more complicated than I thought. I thought such a sink was just pieces of stone glued together with some kind of magic elixir.
Lynn suggested seeing if a local marble supplier could make the sink. I contacted one in Wichita which offers soapstone counters. They did not respond.
Mark suggested ordering the sink from a Canadian company. I contacted the one he suggested, and they responded with a $1700 price for just the sink (US dollars). This is significantly less than the Vermont quote of $2600 (for just the sink). I await the shipping and carting cost from the Canadian company.
This week, I plan to build a mock-up of the sink from plywood and put it in place. I am excited!
ISLAND COUNTER
I had no idea what kind of counter I would do for the island. Nathan suggested butcher block and I instantly liked the idea.
So, as is my wont, I began to do research.
Oh! There are three kinds of butcher block! I only knew about end grain. But I love the edge style! This image, and the one adjacent, are from Bertrand Block.
Oh! There are various woods to choose from! Marple is to the left. As the floor will be maple (as it was in 1894), this would seem on obvious choice. Which is why I lean towards walnut. GORGEOUS. I could also choose cherry or oak. I think a dark counter floating above a light floor would be more interesting than having things be same/same.
Bertrand responded with two quotes:
$1500 (including shipping) for obvious.
$2500 for GORGEOUS.
Geez.
So I called Dr. Doug. “Can you make me an edge grain walnut butcher block counter?”
“I don’t see why not!”
I await his quote. Breathlessly.
CABINETS
The island will have a dishwasher, and cabinets. I want the cabinet style to be clearly modern. I spent a lot of time on, of course, the IKEA website laboriously going through 2,874,946 options. Then, at last, at last, I was able to place cabinets in my shipping cart. I had not planned to complete the purchase just yet, but did want to assure that everything was in stock for pick up (or delivery) and what the shipping cost would be.
NONE AVAILABLE.
Had I had hair on my head, I would have pulled it all out.
Looking through the LOWES website, I came across something unexpected…
…BLUE
Not once did I think about doing blue cabinets but…but…but, why not? I think this might look really good.
The price for the five cabinets I need would be $1600. All are in stock and would be available for pick-up in early April.
But maybe Dr. Doug can help again? He had a career making kitchen cabinets.
CONCLUSION
Things are moving forward. Some companies have been exemplary in responding; others never got back with me. I doubt I will pursue any of the latter.
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Wow oh wow Ross! This is so exciting! Just stupendous!
I love blue cabinets I chose a blue for my reclaimed cabinets in my kitchen remodel. I also chose a cherry butcher block.
If you are interested in the look check out my Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/B2-Pp0rBWBJ/?igshid=uv3o9s1btlq6
Thank you, Victoria!
It’s all just so lovely! You must be thrilled!
I finished the butcher block myself using waterlox sealer. It is perfect because it penetrates into the wood and hardens. It is also food safe unlike other sealers. The finish is beautiful.
I second the waterlox recommendation. I helped my son install a birch Home Depot countertop in his cabin this fall. It took about 5 coats but the look is so much better than the satin poly a friend had convinced him to use. At least the kid still listens to mom. He would have used mineral oil but he intends to rent out the cabin and needed something a bit more durable and not needing continuous maintenane. We used a few coats of original and then switched to satin finish which was a bit more fussy to apply.
Very exciting, Ross! I like the edge type the best too, and I love the blue cabinets. I can’t decide
which wood I like the most – I like them all! If I had to choose, I would probably say the walnut
with the cherry being a close second. My only question is whether the combination of the walnut
and the blue cabinets would be too dark. Would it be too much of a contrast with the cream walls,
orange shellac trim, and maple floors? Or maybe the contrast is ideal? I have no idea. Just
something to consider. However, as always, I defer to your design expertise!
Ross, I am surprised by the high quote you received. You may want to try Bucks County Soapstone, they are in the vicinity of Philadelphia. I am quite certain their prices are lower. They are in Perkasie, Pa. Tel.# is #215-310-0290. I wish you good luck and a lower quote!
Ross, the companies that haven’t responded may either be out of business due to COVID, or completely overwhelmed due to COVID. My son tried to buy a Lazy Boy recliner and they said that the earliest they could get the one he wanted was SEPTEMBER. Between the trade embargo effect and the numbers of people remodeling due to being home, the industry is swamped. The salesman said he cannot get carpet padding, so he has all these orders to lay carpet but cannot fill them because they have no padding!
Thank you, Mariam!
Yes, I assumed as such. But, what is interesting, is that while the whole industry is overwhelmed, some companies are still being very professional.
That impresses me.
I like the edge and walnut also. And the blue is gorgeous (never was a stainless steel gal). But I know whatever you choose will be awesome. Good luck with the sink! 🙂
Thank you, Laurie!
Ross,
We made a countertop out of Big Leaf Maple for our kitchen. I ‘finished’ it with mineral oil, like a cutting board. I LOVE it! Damn near indestructible, VERY easy to maintain, and very sturdy. I mention this because it turned out WAY darker than I thought it would when I oiled it. You can see pictures here.
Just wanted you to be aware that different varities of wood will be very different in color depending on the finish.
Thank you, Julie! I will look at the pictures!
The kitchen we did in our old house was ‘no particular’ era (hey, it was the ’80s… we were VERY young…. what did we know?), but we bought used, very plain wood cabinets out of a house that was undergoing a kitchen remodel. They were probably ’50s era cabinets – the house we bought them from was definitely ’40s/’50s vintage. We got rid of the banged up, rusty metal 1950s sink unit/upper cabinets (those 60″ were the ONLY cabinets in our entire huge kitchen, and with 5 doors and a window, that was almost all that could be there) and figured out an arrangement with these used cabinets that we then painted – BLUE! So I love your idea, Ross. Our blue was a bit more of a grayish blue, and it really seemed to go with the room.
And for the reduce/reuse/recycle part of it… those ’50s metal upper cabinets now reside in the garage of our 1999 boring colonial – they make great storage out there, and they’re a little bit of a tie to the place I still consider “home” even after living in this new house for just about 20 years!
Thanks for the wonderful story, Beth!
You can get a 8’x25” birch butcher block for $200 at Home Depot.
You can get a 12’ walnut butcher block at Lumber Liquidators for $600.
Marcia, while the walnut is of the blended type rather than edge (which I like) it would be $1900 less than what I was quoted!
YOU HAVE SAVED THE DAY!
Big hug!
Exciting progress! I’ve heard from others that the box stores have a workbench-grade butcher block that is cheaper and you seal it yourself to make it food grade. Options on wood choice are probably limited, but thought I’d mention it. I think the blue cabinets would be beautiful!
Thank you, Liz!
Ross, you are my hero! I have been wanting to redo the island in my kitchen for a while! It’s cheaply built and the drawers are falling apart. But it’s also a unique size for an island and I haven’t been able to find anything premade that would allow me to use the existing granite top! I was thinking about painting it blue as a stopgap, but I saw your blue cabinet bases, popped over to Lowe’s and found THIS!!!
I can put the 21″ wide one together with this one and my existing granite will fit perfectly!! And it has all the drawers I want or need!
I love you!!! <3
I’m so excited for you, Kara!
I have another alternative for cabinets. When I gutted and rebuilt our kitchen in our last home (an apartment in NYC), I used Barker Cabinets. I spent a huge amount of time researching the best cabinets for the money and am so grateful for stumbling on these.
Barker cabinets come in pieces which are very easy to assemble. The individual pieces are 3/4 maple ply which are cut on a CNC machine (and they are easy to assemble). The biggest advantage was that I could customize the height, width, and depth for every one. This meant that my uppers were 15″ deep instead of the standard 12″, my base cabinets were 26″ deep instead of the standard 24″. This gave me an extra 2″ of depth on my countertops which was amazing. It also resulted in my drawers being 2″ larger front to back.
They offer several finishes, however because I wanted them to be blue, I opted to have the outsides unfinished and primed and painted them myself before assembly. I will admit, that was a lot of extra work, and when I do it again for the kitchen of our current house, I will set up a spray booth and spray paint them.
Check out my results on my old blog here:
https://halfclassicsix.com/the-kitchen-is-finished-finally/
Thank you, Devyn! I checked the Barker website.
From Lowes, the 24-inch wide blue 3-drawer base cabinet is $445.
From Barker, the same, in walnut, is $800.
So, the five island cabinets I need would be twice as much from Barker as opposed to Lowes.
Of course, the former looks to be much higher quality!
Oh boy, making your own soapstone sink is not for amateurs. Besides you don’t have time for that.
I think the blue cabinet is a great choice. I do wonder if after the finish on the butcher block is applied, that walnut will be to dark. I always like a blue & white or blue & yellow kitchen. So exciting.
I’ve read that putting waterlox on the underside of a butcher block counter is a must for the area covering a dishwasher to prevent damage from steam. I thought that made good sense, now to convince my husband that butcherblock is the way to go!
Thank you for the tip, Julia!
Not trying to rain on your parade, Ross dear, but are you going to actually use the sink as a working sink? I love the idea, but most likely you need a good dish tub to hold soapy water. There’s a reason that country hardware stores still sell the old fashioned enameled dish tubs. It would be invaluable for everyday tasks, hon. Love the entire concept of your kitchen, although I tend to lean toward Home Depot…and they have free delivery over $75 I believe. It might be worthwhile to investigate.
Hi, Dodi!
I have learned over the years that not everybody washes dishes the same.
Me? I’ve never used a dish tub to hold soapy water. Rather, I soap up the scrubby pad.
I plan to pile dirty dishes to the right, and use the left side of the sink to do the washing. Then stacking the dishes in one of these dish holder thingys, atop the drainboard.
I will also have a dishwasher.
Ross – dish holder thingys? LOL (dish drainer) I luv it. Thx for making me smile 🙂
Ross, I also made a suggestion regarding the sink, BUT my comment is gone??
My suggestion was making it yourself out of concrete. You can make it any shape, size, look and finish you want. If you want to make it look like soap stone you can.
I also left a link to a gallery with counter tops and sinks and all kinds of things made out of concrete, and non of them look like concrete at all. Let me know if you want that link.
If this comments vanishes also, Then I will assume it is on purpose.
Hi, Elin!
Your comment is alive and well. It’s in another post: What Price Beauty?
It got stuck in moderation. I’ve now unstuck it!
3 years ago I removed old tile counter tops and replaced them with wood counter tops from Boos. They were way more affordable than I would have thought and the customer service and quality were excellent. I have an antique double wide drainboard sink. I’m a cook and I love being in and using my kitchen. The wood counter tops make me very happy.
Adding to my own comment – it looks like they no longer work directly with the customer but only through retailers – that’s too bad, but….things change.
Sigh.
That’s good to hear, Lisa! Thank you!
Boos is here. Since 1887! I’m gonna check them out!
Walnut is really expensive. So is cherry and maple.
Consider Acacia. It has lovely grain.
Birch is also economical.
Get it unfinished and then finish it yourself. If it’s just a bit slab on your center island, consider treating it like a cutting board. I’m getting a piece for the top of my converted sideboard island and I’ll be cutting it to size and then just treating it with food grade mineral oil.
Go with Dr. Doug. Whether those cabinets are MDF with a veneer or “wood” they are going to fall apart in 15 years. At least with Dr. Doug you’ll get the exact wood and all you want. Even if it’s more in the long run it will be a lot less. And they will LAST.
One of the reasons I’ve never “updated” my 1949 kitchen is that it was stick built in place with real wood. Anything I bought now would fall apart in 20 years. My parents have gone through two kitchen remodels since getting rid of their original mahogany 1960 cabinets.