My festooled kitchen

[johne]

This was my first major project using the festools. (and the one that justified buying expensive tools lol)
Both me and my wife like minimalistic design and she wanted plain high gloss white cabinet fronts. (No rails and stiles). We didnt want any cabinets on the walls because the space is relatively small. The long stainless grips were also a wish of hers (i wanted no grips at all, but life is all about compromise).

Dishwasher, fridge, waistebins are incorporated and there are two "carousels" (is that an English word?) in the corners. They revolve, the doors move inward and you have two trays in each for pans and such.

To maximize storage space I used mainly drawers varying in size from 2 to 4 feet aproximately. I used the Blum "Blumotion" hardware for the drawers. Blum hinges and some of these little "shockabsorbers" for the two doors (so they dont slam shut)

The countertop is 4 cm beech (mitered at the corners) with the sink routed flush. The faucet is an italian one by Fantini that was left over from a photoshoot.
There is also a little chrome soap pump incorporated.

There is a little heater in the kickboard under the cooker since the original heater had to make room for the kitchen.

 

[Ned]

Beautiful use of a not-too-large space.

The long stainless grips were also a wish of hers.

I like the grips, but I think I would have made the grip under the sink horizontal, carrying the line of the other grips completely around.

...there are two "carousels" (is that an English word?)

Yes.

And it goes without saying, nicely photographed.

Ned

 

[nickao]

Everything looks great Johne! 

I've used the toe heaters too. How are they working out for you?

Nickao

 

[johne]

Beautiful use of a not-too-large space.

The long stainless grips were also a wish of hers.

I like the grips, but I think I would have made the grip under the sink horizontal, carrying the line of the other grips completely around.

...there are two "carousels" (is that an English word?)

Yes.

And it goes without saying, nicely photographed.

Ned

Funny you noticed that, the idea was indeed to make that grip horizontal, but since they run almost the entire width of the cabinet front the grip would touch the one on the drawer next to it when the door opened . I put it vertically since all the doors (carousel, fridge etc have vertical grips)
At least that's the reasoning i used to make it a design feature instead of a mistake lol.

 

[johne]

Nickao,

The toe heater works great, a lot of heat from such a little device. This one is hooked to the central heating and has a fan. Really silent but as it get older the fan starts to become a little louder. Not irritatingly so though.

 

[nickao]

Nickao,

The toe heater works great, a lot of heat from such a little device. This one is hooked to the central heating and has a fan. Really silent but as it get older the fan starts to become a little louder. Not irritatingly so though.

The toe heaters I used were electric with their own thermostat. If the floor was cold and not the room they would turn on without the entire heating system going on. They keep the toes toasty warm! Not as nice as the heated tile in my foyer though.

Nickao

 

[Ned]

I like the grips, but I think I would have made the grip under the sink horizontal, carrying the line of the other grips completely around.

Funny you noticed that, the idea was indeed to make that grip horizontal, but since they run almost the entire width of the cabinet front the grip would touch the one on the drawer next to it when the door opened . I put it vertically since all the doors (carousel, fridge etc have vertical grips)
At least that's the reasoning i used to make it a design feature instead of a mistake lol.

My mistake.  Good thing we talked about it before we drilled the holes. 

Ned

 

[johne]

mmm... i had already drilled the holes. But since its is a spray painted MDF front that hole was easy to fill. No one will ever know.

 

[johne]

About the blum hardware, i enjoyed working with these products because they have very detailed and usable information. They supplied a CD rom with a kitchen design program. This allows you to enter measurements like cabinet witdh, height, the size of drawers you want, drawer front height, gap between doors and drawers and then lets you print out a cut list for all cabinet fronts based on the type of harware you want to use. I thought this was a great incentive to use their products.

 

[robtonya]

I'm currently designing a bath vanity, the Blum Motion was something I was wanting to use, exspecially the little shocks to keep the doors from slamming.

 

[johne]

I'm currently designing a bath vanity, the Blum Motion was something I was wanting to use, exspecially the little shocks to keep the doors from slamming.

When i made the kitchen the blumotion for the doors was a little shockabsorber that you placed in the cabinet frame. They now have hinges that incorporate the shock absorber much cleaner and works better.

 

[johne]

This is the "shockabsorber" i used

 

[sw1211]

Very nice.  I'm sure you considered this but if you ever decide you need upper cabinets, you might consider building them with glass doors.  These would make things still look open, even if the overall space is on the smaller side.

 

[mastercabman]

johne.
did you build the cabinets? or did you buy them and install them?
"carousel" would be called a "lazy susan" in north america.

 

[johne]

johne.
did you build the cabinets? or did you buy them and install them?
"carousel" would be called a "lazy susan" in north america.

Mastercabman, the first idea was to buy the framework and add the fronts myself, but after some outrageous quotes on the framework, i decided to build the whole thing from scratch myself. The main reason i did this apart from the prices from factory build cabinets was that they only have specific sizes 60 cm 90cm 120cm. I needed one cabinet to be 110cm to get it flush to the wall and no one had cabinets that size.  The building itself was not all that hard it was the planning of for example drawer heights (will most products fit the drawer, bottles for example) that took most of the time. Also edgebanding all the cabinets with 3mm PVC (for shock resistance) without having the proper equipement took some time LOL.

 

[danrush]

Robtonya,

I just installed a kitchen with the Blumotion intregal hinges.  I don't know how they will hold up over time, but they are very cool.  Work great out of the box.  I've found over the last few years that the earlier shocks (like Johne used) gave out fairly early at a rate of about 1 out of 30 or 40. (about one per kitchen or two).  This is not a dig, but you might want to have a couple set aside for replacements, if needed.  Nice product though.

Dan

 

[johne]

Robtonya,

I just installed a kitchen with the Blumotion intregal hinges.  I don't know how they will hold up over time, but they are very cool.  Work great out of the box.  I've found over the last few years that the earlier shocks (like Johne used) gave out fairly early at a rate of about 1 out of 30 or 40. (about one per kitchen or two).  This is not a dig, but you might want to have a couple set aside for replacements, if needed.  Nice product though.

Dan

Same experience here, i also found that the shocks were a little weak for larger doors. They get stuck sometimes and placement in the cabinet frame varies with door size. If not placed right door wont't completely shut or still make that slamming noise

 

[Michael Kellough]

Very nice! Almost radical, I like it a lot.

 

[johne]

Very nice! Almost radical, I like it a lot.

Thank you very much Michael, and all others too for your comments.

@ Steve-CO: the drawers give you so much space and since you look on them from the top and can see all your products as opposed to cabinets with doors and shelves where you need to shift stuff around to see whats behind it, that i think i wont need the upper cabinets anytime soon. The glass doors are a good idea though. I think the 4 feet (120cm) wide drawers are great because they leave you with a lot more space than 2 adjacent 2 feet (60cm) drawers. lots of space gets lost.

 

[mastercabman]

johne.
did you build the cabinets? or did you buy them and install them?
"carousel" would be called a "lazy susan" in north america.

Mastercabman, the first idea was to buy the framework and add the fronts myself, but after some outrageous quotes on the framework, i decided to build the whole thing from scratch myself. The main reason i did this apart from the prices from factory build cabinets was that they only have specific sizes 60 cm 90cm 120cm. I needed one cabinet to be 110cm to get it flush to the wall and no one had cabinets that size.  The building itself was not all that hard it was the planning of for example drawer heights (will most products fit the drawer, bottles for example) that took most of the time. Also edgebanding all the cabinets with 3mm PVC (for shock resistance) without having the proper equipement took some time LOL.

thanks,
how about showing us some of the inside of the cabinets.
what type of paint or laminate did you use on the fronts(doors and drawers)?
btw, nice work!!!!