Brielle's Avalon

So. I bought this house 20-some years ago. The family we bought it from had been displaced by a nearby freeway project. The powers that be moved them to a “comparable” home not in the freeway path that they could keep or sell, whatever they wanted, which was (is) the standard deal for progress projects like freeways out here. They stayed just long enough to sell this house. I think they got shafted by ADOT, but we ended up with a house.

Anyway, the owners before our previous owners did a lot of do-it-yourself handyman special projects…many of which I’ve been fixing over the past 2 decades. Their idea of a great kitchen project was to take out the lovely 1950s vintage wood cabinets and replace them with cheap white garage cabinets with ugly white plastic handles. That show EVERY speck of dirt! Ugh!

So far I’ve successfully masked and spray painted one set of doors for a touch of character. And some strip lighting.

I also made long stoneware beads and used them as handles, tying them on with leather shoelaces and replacing the boring, ugly plastic ones. These eventually break and a few of the beads have fallen and broken but I can make more to replace them.I got most of them done but can’t get to the ones in front of the sink…the sink’s in the way! I’ll figure that out later.

And added some brackets for character and actually hold up a shelf above the sink. I added the blue accent paint a few years ago when I had a bit of time on a rainy day and couldn’t work in the garden. I didn’t want to do too much because I’d always intended to replace them…eventually…yes, the sink needs scouring…I’ve been busy making drawer fronts this week!

The cabinets are cheaply made of particle board veneered with melamine. They don’t hold together very well. They finally forced the issue of replacing when the front fell off one, then another and a 3rd is soon to go. Over the past few months I’ve measured and remeasured and double checked and finally measured again and thought “Yay! They’re all the same size!” so I went to the hardware store, picked out 2 boards and had them cut to size.

I planned which ones would go where based on the grain patterns and knots and marked the back tops to keep track. This won’t show when in use unless you know to look into the drawers upside-down. Then I figured out where to put the handles and drilled that, then figured out where the screws would go to hold them to the drawer frames and drilled pilot holes.

Finally I was ready to finish. I found my plane and did a simple bevel around the edges.

After applying spar varnish (I want it to hold up to whatever my kitchen can throw at it!) I let them sit in the spare room away from the rainy night. The next day I put a 2nd coat on the backs and let them sit another day. Then I sanded some blemishes off the fronts and did 3 coats on them over the course of 3 days. Yes, this is a slow process, but worth it.

I gave them an extra day to dry and cure before putting on the handles and installing them. The stove-side drawer went first. I somehow have a spool of copper wire so instead of leather bootlaces I used that. It should last a long time. I measured, measured again, cut the wire and put the handles on. I’ll get better at the twisting by the time I’ve finished, but these’ll last a lot longer than boot laces. I also figured it would be easier to put the handles on before I screwed the drawer front in place. I was right.

Because of the odd way the drawers were originally put together meant there was a gap between the front and the bottom of the drawer. I bought some pre-finished oak 1/4-round and cut it to size to fill the gap. Well, close enough. The glue I’d dripped in to try to hold things together a few years ago gets in the way but nothing’s falling through that hole.

Finally time to put the front on the drawer! I’d measured and drilled right and the screws went right in. I glued in the 1/4 round and had a finished drawer again! No more pulling it open by the middle divider! No more worrying about things falling out! Or being seen while the drawer was closed! YAY! It’s beautiful. I love it. I can’t wait to finish the others. And yes, I need to mop my kitchen floor…I’ve been busy. Anything that falls on the floor can be catfood or chicken food so at least it won’t be wasted.

Now on to the other drawers. I bring the baking drawer front one in to mark where the pilot holes will go. HEARTBREAK! It’s a few inches too short! Somehow over the months of measuring and re-measuring I’d ended up measuring wrongly. *heavy sigh* And yes, I’ll take a bit of time off from this project to mop my kitchen floor.

So more actually accurate measuring of the actual apertures and not the fallen-away drawer fronts gave me better numbers. I took the now-accurate numbers to the hardware store, chose a pretty 10′ board and explained my predicament to some understanding employees who made 3 accurate cuts for me so the drawer fronts will have the board graining continuous along the front of the cabinets. YAY! These are stacked in order in my pottery/patio/art studio waiting for me to write on their backs like their predecessors. Yes, I’ll add pictures when these are done.

Now I have 3 lovely drawers for my next project…whatever that is! And I’ve figured out how to do the rest of the cabinet doors…but that’s another blog post. At least I have time to make more handle beads so I can actually finish this some day.

Update 10/12/24

I just realized that I fixed the other drawers in April 2023 but didn’t update this post! So here it is!

I did the new drawer-fronts the same way I did the first ones, only this time I measured better and correctly. I got the baking drawer in first

Insides

Then the silverware drawer

And its insides

And the whole frontage in that side of the kitchen. Unfortunately the faux-drawer in front of the sink isn’t easy to get out without pulling out the sink so it’ll have to wait. *heavy frustrated sigh* A friend from high school even came by to try to figure it out and no luck there, either, so it’s just outside waiting for another day.

This is what’s left of the old drawers. I have plans to put in a new drawer below the first drawer next to the stove. It’ll hold the lids so they won’t fall all over anymore. I just have to build the drawer and put in the gliders since I already have the drawer-front…but that’s for another day.

I also have plans to replace all the kitchen cabinet doors with shiplap to match the drawers. Can’t wait! Well, I guess I’ll have to wait since there’s so much else to do around here and so little time outside of work. Work does so get in the way of getting stuff done!