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stair cabinet design – part two
Forever ago (August), we posted part one of the stair cabinet design. A second cousin to the fauxdenza, our stair cabinet is a series of IKEA wall cabinets that are fastened to a plinth made of 2×4’s, wrapped in vertical grain fir boards, and backed with painted drywall. Primarily, we needed something that would serve as a guardrail to the new basement stair, but because every inch is valuable in our small house, we decided to snag 12 extra inches and create a guardrail that also doubles as storage and display space. The basic unit has been finished for months, but we spent a long time designing and redesigning the finishes, which was challenging because technically, it is part of the kitchen, dining room and living room. But good news, it’s finally done!
In addition to providing safety and storage, the cabinet has one other feature – it collects the return air from the main floor and sends it back to the furnace. With only 800 SF of living space on the main floor, we just needed one centrally located return grille, so the stair cabinet location made a lot of sense. And then of course we had to design the grille. The photo above shows the final product. The toekick is actually two pieces – the solid piece on the left is attached permanently while the piece on the right is fastened with exposed screws so we can remove it and access the plenum behind if necessary. The two sets of slits were made (very carefully) with a 1/2″ wide dado blade on the table saw. Because we were limited in height, the openings had to be fairly long in order to equal the amount of supply air serving the rest of the floor.
Kyle had the brilliant idea to install a mesh screen on the back to keep Bailey fur and other debris from finding its way into the return duct (and hopefully we won’t have to clean the filters as often).
To do this, he kerfed out some groves on the backside and installed the screen the same way you would on a screen door. (Fortunately, due to a party faux pas by a certain big-headed golden, Kyle has had some recent practice.) Below is a shot of the finished backside, ready for install.
Honestly, the biggest decision hurdle for this piece was the counter. In some ways, it made sense to match one of the counter materials in the kitchen, but we couldn’t justify shelling out the money for a surface that didn’t need to be as durable. Since it’s long and skinny, another thought was to buy a 10′ board and just paint it. This would be an inexpensive, easy solution but unfortunately we needed 12.5″ in depth to cover the doors and common boards are only 11.25″ at most. Finally, we came up with the idea to fab up a countertop out of three different materials. This entailed first buying a nice piece of 5/4 vertical grain fir and a piece of low-cost MDF and then biscuiting and gluing them together.
This way, the long and short edges of the fir would be exposed and the MDF would be totally hidden by the back of the cabinet and side pieces.
The third ingredient – plastic laminate. Now, p-lam can be a dirty word in the design world, but we think if it’s done right it can be an attractive and practical solution. So we bought a roll (about $80 for a 30″x144″ piece), trimmed it down (leaving a little excess on all sides) and covered both surfaces with contact cement.
After the glue was dry, we flipped the laminate over onto the boards and used a small hand roller (same one we bought for the cork floors) to press it into place.
Then Kyle used the router to trim the excess and get a precision edge.
For the “backsplash”, we covered the MDO (which serves as the substrate for the drywall on the opposite side) with extra cork tiles. This took about 20 minutes to install and adds a little something while still being subtle. (We could use it as a tackboard, but since its low and recessed I’m not sure it would be that practical.)
We debated whether to use the white or gray high gloss panels for this piece (one of the biggest challenges with a small open space is how to match things without being too matchy-matchy), but after deciding on a white counter the gray seemed like the logical choice and adds a bit more color and richness. At the exposed sides of the cabinet we cut pieces from a botched dishwasher end panel and screwed them in place from the inside of the cabinet. (With IKEA cabinets, you can buy various cover panels that match the cabinets and are designed to go on the exposed ends of cabinets but also come in larger sheets for whatever your DIY brain comes up with.)
Obviously, it’s feeling a little sparse right now. In addition to extra display or book space, the counter could also be cleared and used as a buffet for once-a-year events like Thanksgiving. We also have ideas about a mail organizer that could sit at the left end of the counter (I’m envisioning a lacquered tray in mustard yellow).
The exposed fir edges of the counter still need to be finished with some benite and poly, but you get the idea.
Three of the four cabinets are filled with books. I was overly optimistic in thinking that all of our books, photo albums and maybe even a few board games would fit. I know there’s room for purging but it’s (for some dumb reason) really hard for me to let go of architecture books. So I’m just going to shut the doors and not think about it for now – we still have the basement!
The fourth cabinet (closest to the kitchen) is the mini-bar/cookbook storage.
Finally, for the hardware, we used the same pulls as the kitchen but in a slightly narrower version.
So there it is, the little stair cabinet that could. Our 1910 house may have been cheated out of the charming early 20th century built-ins that come with most houses of this age, but now it has its own and it better be around for 100 more years.
when sketchup imitates life
We started modeling our house in SketchUp a few years ago. Since then, it has helped us figure out the overall redesign for the main floor, choose the color scheme for the exterior, and flush out specific details like our fence and loft ladder. While we’ve been pretty precise about dimensions, colors and materials, I never really thought the final product would look like the “sketchy” model, especially considering that our house is 100 years old.
But I have to say, I’m a little weirded out/amazed at the comparison.
Obviously we’re still missing the barn doors (doors…totally overrated!) and we changed a few small things along the way, but all in all, SketchUp doesn’t lie.
The last time we did a SketchUp comparison, it was way back in April (see that post here). This photo was taken at the end of demo day, when chezerbey felt more like a barn than a house. Ugh, I get tired just looking at this!
Needless to say, it’s been a busy year!
kitchen details
First of all, a big thanks for all the positive feedback last week! Seriously, it made those six months of eating in our basement totally worth it.
Some people had questions about the innards of our kitchen, so we’re back to share the dets. In addition to the custom shelving units that we made, we also made some modifications to the IKEA units themselves, and thought we’d share those tidbits here as well.
But first, the view inside our fridge. It may only be 2′ wide and counter depth, but 98% of the time it’s enough space for us. Usually we just buy food and eat it the same week so we don’t need a lot of space for extras. The freezer portion below has 2 full size drawers and a half drawer at the bottom (to make room for the compressor). Our freezer mostly consists of coffee, ice cream and frozen veggies so it works for us. If, someday, we have lots of little Zerbeys running around and need more space, we could always do a full height refrigerator-only unit and then do a separate freezer in the basement. But for now, it does the job. (Note: since the fridge needs to ventilate at the top, we opted not to do another custom shelf in that area. The space is still useful for storing larger trays and the like.)
In addition to our custom shelves and plywood wraps, we also fabed up our own toekicks. The matching high-gloss gray was an option, but we decided that a solid wood piece would be more durable and add a little extra pizzaz. So we bought one length of IKEA toekick material and used it as a template to make our own. This basically entailed using the table saw to kerf out a notch that would accept the IKEA clip that then snaps onto the plastic legs that the cabinets are sitting on. (We also finished the wood with polyurethane.) Since the space under the island cabinets acts as a plenum for supply air, we simply incorporated a metal grille into that toekick. This is also a very good place to stand on a cold morning. (Did we mention that we went two years without heat in our house? Yeah, love us some heat.)
For the door and drawer pulls, we went with fancy Reveal pulls which are thicker than typical top-mounted hardware and thus needed to be recessed into the doors and drawer fronts. This seemed like a daunting and potentially risky job to me, but not for Kyle. He simply fashioned a custom jig that allowed him to router out the exact shape and size. Of course.
Love ’em.
The restocking and organizing of the kitchen was my territory. During the design stages, I laid out where everything would go (mainly to make sure we’d given ourselves enough space) and I think I followed the original plan pretty closely. The great thing about going the IKEA route is all the interior fittings. Really, I feel very sophisticated now.
…or maybe not. Yes Mom, the smiley face spoon gets used all the time. Tonight, it made polenta.
Something else I love about the IKEA drawers is that they’re deep. (Even though they’re more expensive, we did all drawers except the sink cabinet. Drawers are just way more functional. Period.) In an effort to avoid countertop clutter, I decided to stow the food processor, toaster and other infrequently used items in the drawers. With full extension drawer glides, it’s easy to pull things in and out and the wider drawers come with extra beefy drawer glides.
Lid organization – just one of the many new luxuries in our lives.
Originally, we were going to dedicate several of the island drawers for food storage (an idea we called the island pantry), but with the awesomeness that is our big pull-out pantry we didn’t really need more space. Except for this one – the all important snack drawer (the white bins are IKEA too).
Lazy Susan! (Where did that name come from anyway?) This is the space where we stash our pots and pans, strainers and mixing bowls. I love it. After years of apartment dwelling, this is another indulgence. On another semi-related tangent, the one thing that we just weren’t thrilled with was the vertical gap between banks of drawers. Even though there is adjustability built-in to the hardware, there’s just no way to avoid a small gap and using white cabinet boxes with a darker front only makes the issue more obvious. Our solution – a strip of black electrical tape on the cabinet box face so it now reads as a black reveal. Architectural detailing at its best.
Finally, la pièce de résistance – the IKEA pull-out pantry! For old houses or small spaces, this is a must-have. IKEA has a few different options, but on this particular model, the top and bottom drawers are permanently attached to the door front and the intermediate 3 drawers can slide in and out independently. And like everything else, it has soft closing dampeners so you only have to give it a light push before it retracts back into the closed position. In the small cabinet above, we store things like vases, the crock pot, and the ice cream maker. We also weren’t afraid to use those handy end panels. By installing one on the exposed side of the fridge, it gave the assembly a more buttoned-up look.
So there you have it – the kitchen tour, MTV Cribs style.
loft ladder design
One of the last big projects to tackle on the 2010 list is the loft ladder. We always knew that this would be a custom piece – not only does it have to be a precise length and angle, but it also has to serve as a guardrail at the top and bottom.
The ladder is also the first thing you see when you walk in the door, so it has to be awesome. Naturally.
We also knew that in order to be awesome, it should probably be a combination of steel and wood. We’ve been toying around with the design for the last couple of weeks and have landed on an assembly of various steel shapes (welded together), with fir wood for the treads and handrail.
As the ladder extends into the loft, the handrail goes vertical and becomes the guardrail for the lightwell below. The horizontal members here would also be a good place for apprehensive ladder climbers to grab on to. The wood treads are notched and fastened through the underside of the recessed steel plate.
Here’s a SketchUp mock-up of the whole assembly. Since we don’t have welding equipment (yet), we’re talking to a few local companies that could do the steel work and then we’d do the wood portion. Truthfully, I think Kyle is trying to decide if he wants to spend the next couple of months learning how to weld or enjoy not spending every free minute working on the house.
Here is a detail of the top of the stair portion – the tube steel stringers are welded to a vertical plate which gets lag screwed to a glulam beam (now covered in drywall).
The handrail would be comprised of steel bar (welded to the tube steel stringer) with a fir handrail, notched to accept the steel bar. We like the expression of the wood and steel, plus the wood is more comfortable to the touch and occurs where your hand would naturally go as you climb up the ladder.
At the bottom of the ladder, the tube steel is welded to a steel angle that gets lag screwed to the structure below and covers the edge of the cork flooring. The round bars between the treads serve as a guardrail at the bottom of the stair. (Residential building codes require a spacing tight enough that a 4″ sphere can’t pass through.) The steel tab on the left serves as a guide for the barn doors to slide by.
We also talked about doing a ship ladder (with alternating treads), but we like the relative simplicity of single treads. We’re also not sure if we would use blackened steel or have it powder-coated (maybe a dark gray). We don’t really have any other dark steel work in the house, but I think that’s ok. We’ve also gone back and forth about the finish on the barn door track and if it should match the ladder. The track comes in a galvanized (hot dipped, not electroplated) finish, which doesn’t look too bad, especially after cleaning it up a bit.
A new loft ladder will also be good motivation to actually finish the loft. After painting the rest of the main floor, I only had enough sanity to get the space primed and since then – out of sight, out of mind. I’m sure by February or so I’ll have forgotten the torture that is painting a sloped surface at awkward angles.
Resources
This is an ongoing list of materials and products that we have used in our house. To avoid the nightmare of keeping links up-to-date, we decided to keep it simple and just list the stores/distributers in parentheses. All suppliers are in the Seattle area, unless otherwise noted. Happy sourcing!
General
Windows: Eagle Aluminum Clad Wood Windows (“chocolate chip” brown on the exterior and fir on the interior)
Skylights and Skylight Shades: Velux
Exterior Doors: Simpson (Frank Lumber Door Store)
Exterior Door Hardware: Emtek stainless steel Stuttgart lever with square rosette & stainless steel square style deadbolt
Interior Barn Doors: Paint grade doors (Frank Lumber Door Store) painted with Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura paint in “Thunderbird” and “Lakeside Cabin”
Interior Barn Door Hardware: Henderson by Pemko (Builder’s Hardware) painted gray with an automotive primer
Interior Barn Door Handles: Linnea Flush Pulls (linnea-home.com)
Flooring: Capri Cork 12″x12″ tiles in Mediterra Dark with OSMO hardwax oil finish(Ecohaus)
Trim: FSC VG fir & painted formaldehyde-free MDF
Vaulted Ceiling: painted beadboard plywood
Tension Rods (Tacoma Screw) and Turnbuckles (Fisheries Supply)
Recessed Can Lights: Halo
Roller Shades: The Shade Store (theshadestore.com)
Bathroom
Bathub: Kohler Tea-For-Two (Craigslist)
Shower Fixtures: Hansgrohe shower valve and shower bar & Kohler Purist showerhead, tub spout and handshower (Best Plumbing)
Toilet: Toto Aquia dual-flush (Morgan’s Plumbing)
Sink: Kohler Kathryn (Best Plumbing)
Faucet: Kohler Purist (Best Plumbing)
Vanity: IKEA Akurum with custom teak plywood counter and side panel (Crosscut Hardwoods)
Vanity Hardware: Epco aluminum pulls (thehardwarehut.com)
Toilet Paper Holder: Atlas Homewares Linnea (thehardwarehut.com)
Mirror/Shelf: IKEA Molger Series in walnut (no longer available)
Floor Tile: Technoline 12″x24″ tiles in “tortora” (Pental Tile & Marble)
Wall Tile: Dal-Tile subway tiles in white (Home Depot)
Shower Curtain: IKEA
Shower Rod: Moen Donner Collection (Amazon.com)
Shower & Tub Ledge: solid teak (Crosscut Hardwoods)
Wooden Mat: Crate & Barrel
Artwork: Custom DIY (inspired by this Apartment Therapy post)
Towel Bar: IKEA Gruntal bar with DIY teak plywood cover plate
Towels: Bamboo blend (NOOD)
Wall Sconces: Resolute Utility wall sconce (with opal shade)
Exhaust Fan: Panasonic WhisperQuiet
Electric Radiant Floor Mat: Warmly Yours
Paint: Zero-VOC FreshAire in white (Home Depot)
Clock: IKEA
Bedroom
Bed: Custom DIY (maple plywood)
Duvet: IKEA
Wardrobe: IKEA Pax with IKEA curtains and ceiling-mounted track
Nightstands: Offi TV stands (Design Public)
Reading Lights: Artemide Tolomeo with parchment shade
Light/Fan: Modern Fan Company – Cirrus Hugger with maple blades (Seattle Lighting Supply)
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “ashland slate” (Mallory Paint Supply)
Floors: Flor Carpet Tiles
Kitchen
Cabinets: IKEA Akurum with Abstrakt fronts in white and gray
Drawer/Door Hardware: Reveal Designs “Washington” pull (Builder’s Hardware)
Counters: Silestone quartz in “white north” (Precision Countertops)
Butcher Block: Lyptus (Crosscut Hardwoods)
Backsplash: colored glass (Distinctive Glass)
Sink: Kraus stainless steel single basin (Craigslist)
Faucet: Grohe Minta in SuperSteel (Morgan’s Plumbing)
Soap Dispenser: Danze Parma (Amazon.com)
DIY Open Shelving and Plywood Wraps: fir plywood and edgebanding (Crosscut Hardwoods)
Wall Lights: Purity Reach Lights (Resolute)
Island Light: Bruck V/A Linear Chandelier with Rainbow I glass shades in “smoky” (Pacific Lighting)
Undercabinet Lighting: ET2 Contemporary Lighting LED tape lights (Seattle Lighting Supply)
Range: GE Cafe 30″ dual fuel (Albert Lee Appliances)
Dishwasher: Bosch SHX46L (Albert Lee Appliances)
Refrigerator: Liebherr
Microwave: GE Spacemaker II (Albert Lee Appliances)
Range Hood: Vent-A-Hood PRH9-230 (Albert Lee Appliances)
Waste Bins: Rev-a-Shelf (Lowes)
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Barstools: IKEA Sebastian
Metal Ledge: West Elm
Spice Jars: greenfeet.com
Hanging Planter: Boskke
Dining Room:
Drum Pendant: West Elm (with custom cover plate)
Table: IKEA
Chairs: Vintage Eames Shell Chairs with Maple Dowel Bases (Modern Conscience)
Metal Picture Ledge: West Elm
Stair Cabinet: IKEA Akurum wall cabinets with custom VG fir wrap
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Living Room
Couch: BoConcept Indivi 2 in “felt”
Coffee Table: BoConcept
Side Table: Custom DIY
Rug: Crate & Barrel
Lighting: Techlighting Kable Lites with Jane fixtures (Seattle Lighting Supply)
Media Cabinet: IKEA with custom fir top, cushion from Crate & Barrel
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Nursery
Glider + ottoman (from early photos): Land of Nod Monte Luca in charcoal
Crib: IKEA Gulliver in birch
Crib and toddler bed mattresses: Naturepedic ($260)
Toddler bed: Perch bed from Oeuf (Amazon)
Wardrobe: IKEA Pax
Curtain track: IKEA Kvartal
Curtain fabric: Texas Susannie Fabrics
Dresser: Craigslist with white plastic laminate plus yellow paint (BM in “luminous days”)
Changing pad: Naturepedic
Area rug: Custom DIY using Flor carpet tiles
Hanging vessels: West Elm
Air plants: Air Plant Supply Co.
Squirrel Coat Hook: Land of Nod
Frames: IKEA Ribba
Christian Jackson “Princess and the Pea” print: Imagekind
Roller shades: The Shade Store
Fan/light combo: Modern Fan Co.
toy/book storage cubes: Custom DIY
Paint: Benjamin Moore Natura in “Baby Seal Black”
Loft
Wall Sconce: Purity Reach Light with silver shade lining (Resolute)
Roof Window: Velux
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Flooring: Flor carpet tiles, style is “Love Ewe”, color is “Dorset Brown” (Flor.com)
Desk: custom (made from reclaimed fir beams and steel – built by Kyle)
Storage: IKEA Stolmen units on casters
Loft Ladder: custom (designed and built by Kyle)
Mudroom
Flooring: Flor carpet tiles in “house pet” and “coir”
Paint: Benjamin Moore Aura Exterior in “soot” and Benjamin Moore Aura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Ceiling: T&G VG fir 1×6 boards (Limback Lumber)
Bench: IKEA Molger Series
Coat Hooks: Bach Coat Hooks (Amazon.com)
Light: Red Dot vaportight lights (Home Depot)
Basement Bedroom/Office
Paint: Benjamin Moore Aura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Flooring: Flor carpet tiles (“flats and cords”)
Lighting: Halo recessed cans and Sonneman “puri” sconces (Lightly Supply)
Door: Paint-grade hollow core door painted with Benjamin Moore Aura in “spellbound” (Frank Lumber, “The Door Store” and Seattle Paint Supply)
Sleeper Sofa: IKEA Manstad
Desk: IKEA
Basement
Furnace: Trane XC 95 gas furnace with CleanEffects air filter (Ballard Natural Gas)
Tankless Hot Water Heater: Rinnai 75 LSE (Ballard Natural Gas)
Exterior
Siding: original cedar beveled siding taken down to bare wood using a PaintshaverPro
Shingles: new cedar shingles with Sikkens Cetol 1 translucent stain in “cedar”
Paint: Benjamin Moore Aura Exterior in “soot” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Stoop: Ipe (Craigslist, Limback Lumber, Dunn Lumber)
Gutters: steel “s-line” (Gary’s Gutters in Marysville)
Soffits: painted beadboard plywood (Dunn Lumber)
House Numbers: Richard Neutra (Design Within Reach)
Mail Slot: Ives (Frank Lumber Door Store)
Doorbell: Atlas Homewares (thehardwarehut.com)
Dryer Vent: Seiho SFB aluminum dryer vent
Rangehood Exhaust Vent: Seiho SFX aluminum vent cap
Lights: Red Dot vaportight lights (Home Depot)
Gates: cedar 1×2 boards
Fence: cedar 1×6 and 1×2 boards
Deck: IPE
Steel Planter Boxes: Custom DIY
