Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The tea cabinet

Today we constructed the tea cabinet, which will fit on the left of the microhood and is a narrow cabinet which I plan to use to store canisters of various teas. We realized the cabinet needed to be installed prior to installing the remove-able back of the above microhood shelf so we can install a cleat on the tea cabinet to hold the back in position.

Much careful measuring ensued, but we still cut the back of the tea cabinet incorrectly on the first try. We subtracted the width of the cabinet sides twice, grr, leading to the cabinet back being cut one inch too narrow. The second time we were dead on, though. The cabinet went together pretty quickly. We discovered veneer edging on some past project, and put it too good use here covering the exposed plywood edges. The veneer is a huge timesaver, it is covered with a heat sensitive adhesive, you use an ordinary household iron to attach the veneer, let it set, then trim the veneer to fit. Amazing! What takes longer is covering it all with several coats of polyurethane --very tedious.

The cabinet is made from red oak plywood, as white oak plywood, so popular 25 years ago, was nowhere to be found. It won't match the existing cabinets exactly, but we hope with the addition of some red oak molding here and there, it will look planned. Probably not, but it will be the cabinetry equivalent of plaid, my favorite color, so it will work for me.

With luck and perseverance, we should be able to hang the cabinet and put in the back wall tomorrow.

The new microwave, BTW, works great, heating things much faster than the old one, and more quietly, too. The fan feature of the vent is quiet, but I haven't given it a real workout yet -- I foresee some sauteed garlic and onions on the menu soon.

4 comments:

Meg said...

Nice work! That looks great, and I love those tea tins.

The green color on the back of the wine glass shelf--is that paint? I love that color; our bedroom is the same shade.

jeannie said...

Ali,
It looks like you and Dan did a marvelous job on your project! I also did not know that you collect tins. because I collect tins too.
And they have to look just right to me or I don't buy them. And also I'm glad you liked my idea with the doors. Jeannie
p.s. We may need to get together and maybe get one for Mommy and Daddy if at all feesable. Or if we all get-together and buy Mommy a new stove.

Anonymous said...

I like the idea of the tea cabinet.I would very much like to see a photo of the whole wall.I still don`t know what is over the micro wave. Have you ever thought of painting the wall behind the cabinet to the right of the stove the green that is on the other side?MOM

Ali said...

Meg: the green is paint, I believe it is called Fox Hollow or something equally descriptive. I love that color too, it is in our living room and in parts of the kitchen. How great that your bedroom is that color! One of the things I hated about apartment living was the endless array of landlord beige walls.

Jean: I love those vintage metal canisters! I use a lot of them in the pantry for flour, sugar, rice, etc. They work great and look good.

Mom: We debated for hours about whether to paint the back of the mug cabinet green or taupe. We finally picked taupe, and until we finish painting all the rooms in the house, there is no going back! I'll post a photo of the whole wall with the photos of the tea cabinet. xoxo.