stair cabinet design – part one
I’m not really sure what the technical term is for a piece of built-in furniture that also doubles as a stair guard rail, but we’ve decided to call it a stair cabinet!
Anyhow, the stair cabinet is another one of our chezerbey small-space, double-duty solutions. Now that we’ve blown out most of the interior walls we have less wall space for storage, so it’s great to be able to gain some of that back. The design has evolved over the last several months and in the end we arrived at a semi-custom/semi-IKEA solution. (The great thing about SketchUp is that you can try a number of different ideas in a very short amount of time.) The four white cabinets are IKEA Akurum wall cabinets (probably with the high gloss Abstrakt doors). I really wanted open shelving above for books and some type of catch-all for keys/mail/phones on top. This is the custom part. Once we figured out the general form and design, we started wrestling with what material we would use. The shelving was too deep for solid wood 1x boards but we weren’t sure we wanted to go the veneered Europly route ($$).
And then Kyle said, “I have a genius idea”.
Design iteration #2 – we go ahead and use 1×12 boards (fir, of course) so they’re intentionally shallower than the base cabinets below. Add a counter surface to the top of the cabinets and you have a display and shelving area that can also be used as a buffet for parties or Thanksgiving. The back of the cabinet (which we’re thinking would be painted or covered with p-lam) would keep dishes and serving forks from accidentally getting knocked down and into the stairwell below. (No cranberry relish-splattered white walls to ruin the day!) This rendering still shows some type of catch-all object on top but we’re thinking it could be incorporated as part of the open shelving as well. The ends of the white cabinets would also be faced with a blank door face so you don’t see the boring melamine finish. This design also seems less oppressive than the first one. It’s friendlier. And isn’t that a quality we all look for in a stair cabinet?
So I picked up the cabinet boxes a few weeks ago and we got to work building the basic frame. After assembling the boxes, Kyle installed plywood to the backs for extra rigidity. Notice the jorts? Oh yeah!
The cabinet boxes were fastened to each other and then to a plinth made of 2×4’s. Another layer of plywood was added to the back (to keep everything from racking and to provide a substrate for the sheetrock) and then we added a couple of metal framing anchors (between the plinth and floor) for good measure.
Since the drywall on the backside would be butted up against the fir wrap, we needed to get it built and in place. Much to Kyle’s happiness, this meant a new tool – a biscuit joiner. We didn’t want any visible fasteners, so we biscuited the top and side panels to each other and into the plywood substrate.
Such fun! Good thing too, we only have 7 other custom cabinet pieces to build.
FSC biscuits! Yum!
After the boards were in place, Kyle installed a coat of Benite, a penetrating wood conditioner. We’ve applied one coat of Satinthane, a polyurethane finish, and will apply one more after the drywallers are done.
This is what it looks like now. The fir wrap is actually really sturdy so we don’t necessarily need any intermediate supports.
I took these pictures right when I got home from work. Bailey had not been fed yet.
We’re thinking p-lam for the back face of the open shelving, for a little color(!). The counter material is TBD, we can’t justify using a spendy kitchen counter material, since this surface won’t get that much abuse and we can easily use a towel or trivet if it’s used for hot food. The dimensions work well for some type of shelving material but I really don’t want to do melamine. Fortunately, we have some time to think about it.
We chose to do the back side in drywall, so it would really read as a built-in part of the house. (The fir is proud of the drywall by about 1/4″. There’s tape on the edges right now to keep mud from getting on the wood.) The stair handrail will go on the opposite wall, so this could become some type of display wall in the future. It’s something to think about at least. (We also have an awesome idea for stair lighting…but we need to do some more investigation and designing first.)
This end is open because it’s where the loft ladder will go. The loft ladder still needs to be designed. I’ve been looking around for an inexpensive, industrial type ladder that could be used as a temporary fix…but no such luck. Any suggestions? It needs to be a true ladder that can be installed at an angle and at least 9′ tall.
Bailey, don’t do it. You remember what happened last time.
So what do you think? I was hesitant of the 1×12’s at first but the added versatility of food display eventually won me over. (Hmm…and maybe one of the cabinets could be used as a mini-bar.) Party at our house!
progress report: week 20
20 weeks down, 4 weeks to go! Yeah…we’re definitely not getting done in time.
But hey, we’ve got drywall!
Here are a few quick photos from this morning. The mudding/taping starts today and will last through next Monday. We’re getting close!
(The plywood beadboard, reglets and drywall will all get painted white.)
The timing for drywall has ended up working well for us, as we’ve had a lot of going away activities these last few weeks. (Oh you know who you are…and we miss you three already!) In the meantime, we’re finishing up odds and ends and will start putting together cabinets soon(!). Also, big thanks to Audrey for getting our new wireless network hooked up. You saved us a whole weekend of headaches!
We are so ready to dive into this last phase of the project, but there are still a few major decisions to make – like countertops and hardware! Stay tuned for new posts that could be titled, “how to cope with champagne taste on a beer budget”. Oh, the life of an architect.
the month of august
August is usually the best time of year to be in Seattle. The days are long, sunny and perfect for going on a hike or just lounging about. But for us, August has been a time to start new projects or push through projects that have been going on for FAR TOO LONG.
Case in point:
August 2006
I think this was taken the day we got the keys. With clipboard in hand, there was a lot to do. Fortunately, we had a month overlap with our rental house lease so it bought us a few weeks to clean things out and get a couple of rooms painted (rooms that we have now completely demolished).
I took down the floral wallpaper in the bathroom and Kyle used the crushed green velvet couch (that came with the house!) to remove layers of wallpaper from the living room ceiling.
August 2007
A year after we moved in, we took on our first major project – completely replacing the roof. Looking back, I cannot believe we did this.
My appearance in the photo on the left was generated by the contents of the photo on the right. So much debris!
But by the end of August, we were done.
August 2008
About a week before Kyle’s 30th birthday – we gutted our bedroom and bathroom. The date isn’t so significant except that we had planned a big b-day celebration….at our house. The house with only one bathroom. The house with the bed in the living room.
Goodbye faux marble plastic tiles! (The video is even funnier, but that’s for another time.)
Our makeshift bathroom on the left…our old closet soon-to-be-new-bathroom on the right. Yikes.
August 2009
With record temperatures last year, we didn’t mind working outside. We were still immersed in our exterior project, and Kyle was making his way around the house with the PaintShaver.
August 2010
And here we are in 2010, with our ambitious kitchen/dining/living/2nd bedroom/loft project! I hear there are lots of fun things to do in Seattle in August. Ugh.
For August 2011, I’m hoping for more lazy days – with weekends spent actually enjoying this city rather than hitting up the hardware store. There are still a few major projects left to do (finishing out the basement, revamping the yard, and dealing with our garage eyesore), but we’re in no rush.
Well, I say that now. Plenty of time to change our minds.
progress report: week 19 (part 2)
On Friday morning, the wallboard, mud and tape were delivered. These are just the 12′ sheets. (There were about the same number of 8′ sheets – half went to the loft and half to the 2nd bedroom.) It was at this moment that I thanked my lucky stars that we had decided to hire this out. We’re all for sweat equity and figuring things out on our own, but not when it comes to this. For one, we lack the combined required muscle (when we hung sheetrock on our bedroom ceiling – I resorted to using my head after my arms gave out – it wasn’t pretty). In fact, I’d even put hanging drywall on the list of things spouses should never do together (it’s right up there with a 2-person kayak). We also recognize that doing a smoothwall finish is an art and something we don’t have the time or patience to acquire. And really, I think that’s ok. We’re not out to win the Ironman of home remodeling or anything. Doing more work ourselves just means that it costs less, we learn something, and (usually) it’s pretty fun.
This weekend was also HOT (by Seattle standards anyways). We don’t have our stair fan installed yet, so we picked up two box fans to help encourage airflow (one in the basement blowing cooler air up, one in the roof window in the loft pulling hot air out). Along with the new insulation, it kept the house mostly tolerable.
With insulation done, it was time to install the plywood bead board ceiling and reglets. Reglets are basically aluminum shapes that (in our case) serve as transition pieces between two different materials (drywall and plywood).
The shape on the right has a notch on one side to accept the drywall of the flat ceiling and a deep lip on the left side which acts as a visual termination for the plywood. For the “J” shape on the left (think upside down J) the drywall for the walls will slide up into the reglet. This way, there’s no weird seam where the drywall of the wall and bead board of the ceiling meet. An additional trim piece could be used instead, but being the modernists that we are…we like clean lines and reveals. It’s a lot more work, but we think it will be worth it.
And then the plywood ceiling went up! (Kyle actually installed half the ceiling by himself while I was getting a pedicure and brunch with girlfriends. Did I feel guilty? A bit. Secretly overjoyed. Yes!) We’re using plywood bead board because it’s less expensive and a lot less laborious than installing individual tongue and groove boards. After drywall, we’ll paint it white to match everything else. The tapered header and edges at the skylights will be drywall, with more reglets between the two materials.
I was surprised how much taller the space felt once the ceiling was up. The rest of the install turned out to be a bit trickier, as we had to do small customizations to several pieces so the horizontal grooves all aligned. Oh the joys of dealing with 100-year-old framing!
And there you have it. We are now on week 20 (20!@*), but thrilled that the drywall is going up this week.
progress report: week 19 (part 1)
Electrical inspection…passed! Framing inspection…passed! Insulation inspection…passed!
Boom!
Lots to report on this week…so much in fact, that I decided to break up the weekly post into two parts. Kyle and I both took off on Friday and with inspections scheduled and a looming drywall start date, we got a lot done. And it feels so good.
Hello light at the end of the tunnel…is that you?
1. We (finally) wrapped up the electrical work and Kyle got a big gold star from the inspector (ok, not really…but I would have given him one).
2. For our doors and windows, we’re doing a simple casing around the frame that the drywall will then butt into. This meant trim had to go up pre-drywall. When we did the bedroom and bathroom two years ago, we used MDF that we then painted white. This time around we decided to go VG fir (with a coat of benite and a few coats of clear finish).
We even found FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) fir at our local lumber yard. For consistency, we redid the bathroom and bedroom door casing too. I’m really pleased with how it turned out – it really pops against the white walls. We also decided to install the boards a bit proud of the drywall (that just means it sticks out further). It’s a nice touch.
To properly undercut the jamb pieces, we used one of our cork flooring samples. So exciting to visualize the final product…we’re getting there!
I really love the fir sill at the kitchen window and couldn’t resist transferring the lavender from the bathroom for a quick photo. Actually, I think this image is a good metaphor for our current situation – focus on the end goal, not the big pile of crap in the background.
3. As mentioned last week, one of our “before drywall” tasks was to rough in for the stair guard rail/cabinet. The base of the cabinet is composed of four IKEA upper cabinets (we chose those since they’re shallower than the base cabinets). The cabinet boxes are designed so that the top and bottom pieces extend about a 1/2″ out to provide clearance for the mounting rail. Since we weren’t going to use a mounting rail here, Kyle installed a piece of 1/2″ plywood within this recess which provided extra rigidity.
Quick side note – Kyle loves basset hounds. Each Christmas, as a sorta joke I used to get him a day-by-day basset hound calender…which really is a great way to start the day because they’re just so funny. Anyhow, a few years worth of bassets and we had a nice stock pile of scrap paper that we use for dimensions, notes, etc. During a remodel, a little comic relief can go a long way.
Here’s the semi-completed unit. After the boxes were structurally tied together, we mounted them on a plinth made of 2x4s and then installed another layer of 3/4″ plywood to the back as a substrate for drywall. Kyle then installed another layer of plywood above the cabinet boxes to serve as a substrate for the open shelving. (More on the design of this unit later.)
Here’s a glimpse of the backside that will be sheetrocked over. Since we had some concern about lateral forces on this guy (i.e. – people leaning against it) we thoroughly fastened the assembly to the floor to resist an overturning moment. Literally. No one wants that kind of party foul.
One of the challenges of a small, open house is figuring out where the various system components will go. We only need one return grille for our forced air system, but we didn’t have many options as to where to put it. Ideally, it would be centrally located and away from the kitchen. We also wanted it to be wall mounted instead of just a hole in the floor, which would inevitably get clogged with dog fur. But who wants to see a return grille? So we decided to incorporate it into the base of the stair cabinet. Essentially, the two cabinets on the right have an open area underneath that acts as a plenum. Eventually, we’ll put a custom grille/toe kick over this opening and air will travel through that and then down into a hole in the floor and through the return duct in the basement back to the furnace. The toe kick cover will be removable so we can periodically get down there and vacuum out any errant Bailey fur.
4. With the framing inspection complete, it was finally time to insulate! Our house may look like some version of Smurfville now, but it’s so gratifying to finally have a fully insulated house. With the hot temperatures this weekend, we noticed a perceivable difference right away (even though we tend to think about insulation during the winter time, it also helps to keep the heat out during the summer). We used recycled denim insulation from Ultra Touch (purchased at Ecohaus). It’s a bit more expensive than fiberglass but, 1) it doesn’t make your skin itch like crazy, 2) it’s not damaging to your lungs if you inhale it (although we always wore a mask because really…who wants blue boogers?)and 3) it’s the dream product for old or remodeled homes, where the stud spacing is nowhere near consistent and so there’s a high level of “customization”. We ended up buying a couple of bundles each of 16″ and 24″ batts and the scraps were easily incorporated into other areas or shoved in various cavities here and there so there’s virtually no waste.
We also insulated all of the interior walls for sound attenuation. It certainly can’t hurt and acoustic privacy is one of the few hard-to-solve challenges of living small. (We did buy some r-30 fiberglass batts for the attic side of the vaulted ceiling, but the rafter bays were consistent and they came in a plastic sleeve which made handling a bit better.)
Bailey, what do you think this is? Fashion week?
That’s it for now…stay tuned for part two where we dive into the world of reglets and bead board!
