Most of my work area is enclosed in the old stove bay. Needing to replace the oven I decided to make the area more functional, replacing deep narrow cupboards with drawers and the plywood benchtop with Tasmanian oak.
It’s working beautifully now! I chose not to have a cooktop at this point but have a single plug in induction burner which I’m finding better than I expected.
Steps
Step 1
Made the drawer and oven units. There is nothing square in this kitchen! I chose not to use under cupboard legs as I’m using the space to store flat baking trays and such (eventually in box drawers) This is where I learned how important it is to cut square edges so I made a jig to line the handsaw up against which thankfully worked well because the next step needed it.
Step 2
Once the drawer units were in place it was the scary moment of working on the benches in an area with 3 walls, not one square to another. First I had to dowel join the panels. I needed 2 plus a strip of Tasmanian oak for each of the 3 pieces. I made a jig to keep the holes level and used the double ended dowel things to mark the adjoining holes. I used long clamps and bricks to hold them together while they dried.
Step 3
Using coreflute I made templates for the benchtops. I decided to leave the existing painted ply in place (filling in the cooktop top hole with a piece of scrap melamine and a bit of swearing) for strength and hopefully a bit of stability as the panels are only 19mm thick. It seems to have worked well.
Because of the tightness of the space I couldn’t dowel join the two cross seams so used the super strong gorilla glue and crossed my fingers. It’s been there since Easter with no problems. I used wooden pegs around the edge to hold together and allow a bit of expansion room.
the underneath had 3 coats of Cabot’s benchtop clear and the top surface had 6 coats. Waiting 2 weeks before I could use it was agonising!
Step 4
I used 12mm x 90(?)mm thick pine strips to finish the edges.
The cupboard fronts are painted mdf.
One day I might play with them a bit more to give them a panelled look but there’s a lot more kitchen beyond this area to finish first.
The drawer beneath the oven was painted black to match the oven with a long bunnings drawer handle similar to the oven handle.
The ‘frame’ of this area was improved using 2 veranda brackets for the mantle - modified to fit which I’ve also used to hold the shelves inside the area.
Step 5
And happily in use!
