Finally got some decent light to photograph the new coffee/end table and the kitchen remodel.
The coffee table is built out of three-quarter inch birch ply with a hard maple top that we made out of the last remnant of our countertops. It’s built around the Kuggis bins from Ikea which look sharp and provide someplace to stash all the clutter that would otherwise accumulate in plain sight.
I installed some inexpensive pneumatically actuated (lifters) brackets to make the coffee table lift up for dual use as a desk. With the addition of simple blocks to stabilize the bracket these otherwise wobbly bits of hardware do a great job of supporting the table top. People seem to have a lot of frustration with these brackets so I took the time to make a YouTube video on how to do it easily. That should be up on the channel in a couple days.
The casters on the bottom look nice and work well but they concentrate too much weight on the soft maple flooring leaving dents so those are going to get switched out for legs.
The drawer and shelving unit that we made out of the wardrobe cabinet that we started with turned out pretty good. Definitely rough around the edges but considering my minimal experience with cabinetry I think it’s a valiant effort. They also used up most of the leftover plywood from the build which marks a rare occasion where the rate salvage wood reuse exceeds the rate of reaccumulation!
It was good to live in the space for a month before we built the storage because it let us design the drawers and shelves around what we actually use.
Our wheel well box outs are significantly lower profile than what most people do, which makes them easier to work around. I was a little intimidated about building the cabinet around the wheel well boxes but it really wasn’t a big deal.
Last thing to do is reimagining the over counter shelf and adding light underneath it, I might try to bang that out tomorrow but even if not I feel like it’s fair to say we finished the house by Christmas!
-Brian
