Summer Cabana Drinks in a Backyard Cottage

Some people commute to a cottage,  my friends  walk to their backyard.

Today we explore Hot Summer weekends in the city. My friend R.M. doesn't have time to drive to a cottage every week.  His long weeks of work are rewarded by relaxing with his 2 daughters, and his wife in the backyard.  

The dream and opportunity of living in the backyard all day while forgetting about busy everyday family and professional lives needed one last detail. 

This family didn't  want to go upstairs to the kitchen to make lunch and Dinner.  You Know.... Just laze in the backyard all day long by the pool, and forget about the rest of life inside the house, forget about the home office, and forget about the responsibilities and daily actions that are associated with being in the house.     They already had a built in barbeque and built in oven in the cabana bar,  now they just needed some custom cabinetry to store their cabana dining ware, and some tasty snacks.

 Sometimes a few feet away,  we can find serenity, family values,  mental relaxation, good memories, and celebrated family occasions.

 

So in order to achieve that R.M asked me to build a whole new Cabana Kitchen beside his Barbeque Room, (which housed his built in barbeque in the upper right of the picture, and a built in bar and oven).  They wanted to store their summer backyard cottage dining ware.  His separate silverware.   He wanted cabinetry to hold his surround sound stereo,  his television receiver, and space for the Beer and Margarita Fridge.

 

But this story has a twist,   RM wanted Iron Mountain Charcoal Grey,  but his wife wanted Black Bean Soup (Brown).   Who will win the colour...... We'll find out below!

It all starts with fabrication of the cabinets in a Driveway at my house.

First all of the MDF material is cut into 85 pieces of lumber in the woodshop

 Then we use Dado Blades at the table saw to form extremely strong cabinet sides for inserting the shelves into.

 The dado blades make the strongest joinery

After all of the pieces are fabricated,  we then assemble nice square cabinetry boxes.

 The joints are Glued and nailed with a pneumatic nailer to ensure they are Strong.

Cutting the 85 pieces and  Assembly can take 2 whole days on their own.

It is easier to assemble each cabinet square when the dado Joinery is in place to align the boxes square.

 Cutout for the Kickplates at the bottom allows your feet to slide under the counter.  This prevents bending over, and back injuries.

 Cutouts for the baseboard that is in the existing room,  is necessary when you have a retrofit kitchen,  unlike new construction. 

 Here are two of the cabinets lower sections in the sink cabinet fully constructed.

 Starting to look like some strong structure is forming as the structural bones of our solid wall to wall cabinetry.     The advantage of building custom cabinetry rather than ikea built cabinets is the cabinetry goes exactly wall to wall and does not need filler strips.

Structural Joinery makes Strong Drawers

 

Next we start Dado joinery of the custom drawers.   Dado on the bottom and Rabbet on the front and back  of the side pieces allows for completely square drawers, that when glued and screwed,  will Never loosen  or come apart,  unlike most homes (including mine) which are built with screwed together metal box drawers.  Metabox drawers are okay,  but they can loosen over time.  

These custom drawers,  will never become loose, ever.  Here's the stacked sides for the 3 drawers.

 Then the drawers are assembled with strong joinery, but the Dado (slot)  is tested for accuracy of tight joints first.

 Here is the drawer Fully assembled and getting its first coat of primer from the HVLP spray gun.
You will notice the bottom of the drawer has a recess underneath for completely hidden drawer slides.  This family will never see the drawer hardware when opening the drawer.  

BLUM Bluemotion Tandem Drawer Slides

http://www.blum.com/ca/en/01/40/20/

I like to use these drawer slides,  they are silky smooth and incredibly strong.

1. They don't loosen or wiggle over time
2. They have softclose and will not allow the drawers to slam - ever
3. They are adjustable to allow the drawer to cant (adjust tilt) after installation
4. The drawer is completely removable for cleaning after installation with the touch of two buttons.
5. Reinstalling the drawer is incredibly easy by laying the drawer back on the tracks and pressing the clasps closed.

Modern custom Door Fronts - Don't age or go out of style. 

We spent a fair amount of time going back and forth about what style of door RM wanted.   He wanted something simple and masculine without too many curves.   BUT he did not want flat slab doors that looked like the off the shelf Home Depot slab/ White Melamine doors.    The idea of having a panel door was also not attractive, as these doors had to look very modern.   

So we came up with the idea of putting a simple 3/16" by 1/4" rabbet around the edge of all doors for elegance, while distinguishing them from a simple slab door.  In this manner the door had a light personality.  Shown below is one of the doors with this simple profile which was fabricated on my Router table.   With the stainless steel bar pulls, they will look beautiful.

 

Finish the Priming already and Get to the Ironside Mountain Grey Paint

Some areas of the cabinetry receive 2 coats of primer,  others like the edges of the cabinetry can receive up to 5 or 6 coats of cabinetry to smooth the mdf to a consistent surface, that is smooth to the touch. 

After all the primer is applied,  the Benjamin Moore Iron Mountain Grey is applied.

RM really liked this colour because it was masculine.

http://www.benjaminmoore.ca/en-ca/paint-color/ironmountain

Iron Mountain is 2134-30.  

See the colour in this room.

http://www.benjaminmoore.ca/en-ca/for-your-home/rooms-by-colour/northern-roots-kitchen

Here are some of the pictures of the before and after of Primer and first coat of Iron Mountain.

Then when all the painting is complete,  installation happens.   It took a full day to install these cabinets with one man.    Multiple people during install can speed up the process where necessary.


Notice in the picture below there is a header transom like molding applied at the top of the cabinets that covers the space above the cabinets.   This intentional molding trim enhances the elegance of the cabinets and gives them that Custom made look.  

These cabinets allow for the Stereo equipment to be installed and contained in a dust free environment.   The shelving on the left will hold the stereo components.

Notice the back of the cabinetry is cut to allow access to:

1. Electrical
2. Cable
3. Speaker wires preinstalled within the wall cavity.

Hidden corner drawers

Given the smaller space of the kitchen in this cabana,  RM and I worked on a layout where the cabinets drawers pulled out into unused space at the end of the cabinets between the fridge and the cabinets.    The drawers are designed to never hit the refridgerator when pulled out,  and the advantage is that the space is well used.   (the poor alternative would have been to put another door in the end space,  and never reach the internal space properly because of the fridge being in the way).  With drawers in this space,  it makes excellent use of the corner space with full access to the corner.

The ironside mountain Grey has a nice look to it,  not too dark but not too light, and it looks fairly masculine.

Access for plumbing

Careful measurement of the cabinets were taken to enclose the plumbing within the correct cabinet to provide connection for the sink.  Splitting up the plumbing into two different cabinets would not be good, and given the location of the plumbing that was installed long before cabinetry was designed,  careful consideration needed to go into the size of each cabinet.  

In the end of the design we placed the plumbing in the correct cabinet,   made all 5 lower doors the exact same size,  And had no filler pieces at the end of the cabinetry,  (the doors go exactly wall to wall).    Try doing that with an Ikea kitchen.

Door Hardware

The door hardware is also Blum Bluemotion softclose and will keep these doors silent.  RM will never hear a cabinet door slammed by his children in this Cabana.

 

Below you can see the brackets that hold that upper crown trim moulding in place ensuring that it does not bend or ever fall off.

The moulding is held in place with a small screw while the adhesive dries on the back.  This allows for no screw holes to ever be seen.   The molding is also custom cut around the Crown trim pieces on the cedar wall,  so that it is custom fit for a nice clean joint against the wall.

Levels make a good install for future flat granite tops.

Here are some pictures of the cabinets being installed with a  level on top.  The bottom of the cabinets are being wedged with cedar shims to insure the top of the cabinets are completely flat and level on top of a slightly wavy concrete and tiled floor.

The bottom of the cabinets shows the backing brackets.  This allows the foot plate to be installed and keeps the trim from breaking if someone kicks it too heavily with their feet.

The Changeroom

When many friends come over to swim,  its best to have a private spot to change in and shower before swimming.   This keeps the house cleaner, and allows all guests to feel comfortable changing when they arrive.   It also allows for a clean and dry place to store guests towels, and other swimming googles and pool toys.   In order to keep this space clean,  cabinetry was installed on the top part of the wall to store these fun toys, and warm comfortable towels.   Guests really appreciate having a clean laundered warm and dry towel available.

A Change of Mind and Colour

At the end of the installation,   I asked RM's spouse,  how she liked the cabinets.   JM said Jody don't get me wrong,  I love the cabinets, the Pearl finish you have completed is beautiful,   but I HATE the colour. 

I felt so bad for JM, because this was also her dream backyard and she was constantly debating with RM about the color grey versus the beige and brown earth tones that she liked. 

I said don't worry its only paint,  we can change the colour easily.

So we went ahead and took all the doors off and painted the exterior trim and doors in Black Bean Soup.
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/blackbeansoup

Now JM loves the Black Bean colour of her new cabinets.  The colour goes lovely with the Granite counter that I helped them  source at my friend Chan's -  Granite fabrication shop.   

I also helped them sources a lovely Delta faucet, and Stainless steel barsink from two different plumbing wholesalers,  where they saved money on the plumbing fixtures.  

I finished installing the plumbing for the sink, and the plumbing for the faucet last Saturday, and they are now enjoying their  new kitchen, relaxing in the sunshine !

Thank you JM and RM for letting me complete the kitchen and changeroom cabinetry, and sink /faucet  in your dream backyard Kitchen.  

I really enjoyed working on the sunny days by your pool!