Kitchen Remodel

Here are some before and after pics of the kitchen remodel.

This is the before shot of the North East Wall
The house is a typical Arizona Tract Home. I call them Clone Homes. Functional with no character.
Kitchen was blah with flat panel natural maple cabinets and grey laminate counter tops.

Here's a work in progress shot. New granite counter tops.
Same cabinets with raised panels attached to the flat doors and crown moldings as well as lots of trim work.
I made the fluted panels around the island and on all the cabinet ends from 1/4" baltic ply.
I used the dado blade on the table saw to cut the flutes.

Heres a before shot of the East wall
Counter tops removed. You can see some of the raised panels attached in this shot.
I had to remove and reset some of the lower cabinets to make them level.
Granite counter tops don't like to bend to fit off level cabinets.

Heres the East wall in progress.
I made the raised panels by resawing and bookmatching 3/4" maple. They are attached from the inside of the doors with screws.
I made the trim except for the crown and the rope moldings. I just couldn't bring myself to do all that extra work to save a few bucks on moldings.

Heres the West wall before the remodel.
I removed the sheetrock and studs behind the fridge to allow it to recess about 4 more inches.

Heres the West wall in progress.
One of the hardest things was getting the new maple to match the color of the old sun colored and oxidized maple.

Heres the Entry hall before the remodel.
I was able to match the old maple after trying various stains and combinations of finishes.

Heres the Entry hall in progress.
I ended up using this process to finish. First I sanded to 150 grit.
Then I sealed with shelaq followed by a burnt umber glaze.
Then I topped off with two coats of gloss lacquer followed by a topcoat of satin lacquer.

The next few shots are of the completed project. I built and added fluted columns on the corners and legs under the toe kicks.