Last week was such a momentous one! Cabinet installation happened last week and seeing the final color come together perfectly made it all SO worth the wait! Sharing all the details on our cabinetry below!
inset cabinets & slab doors
We went with an inset cabinet paired with a slab door. I was inspired by the inset cabinetry I’ve done in the past for clients, which typically have a Shaker door panel, but the top narrow drawer is a slab. And I always LOVED the clean look of that top drawer. So I wanted to take it a step further and do the slabs on all drawers and doors. This look is apparently unheard of according to the dozens of cabinet companies we talked to. This is because 99% of cabinet companies use MDF for the cabinet doors with a wood veneer. This is because MDF doesn’t warp like solid wood doors do. However, this posed a huge problem for the look we wanted to achieve. The veneer took stain differently from the solid wood cabinet frame, giving it a two-tone look! I definitely wasn’t going for that.
After doing a deep dive on this with Dave from Faber Built, a local cabinet company in Spokane, he spent a good chunk of time researching options and making the impossible possible for me. We went with solid quartersawn white oak doors (instead of MDF/veneer) and solid face frames to achieve such a simplistic aesthetic. Everything was grain matched, and it all turned out exactly like I imagined! The interiors have solid maple dovetailed drawers, the boxes are made of birch, and we will have roll-out drawers with a special dovetail detail that I’m excited to show off!
the perfect stain & other details
Our cabinets have a custom stain applied. Nope, I don’t have the details on what that custom stain is made up of! It took MANY MANY attempts at color matching our floors to get a similar undertone. Then the cabinets got sprayed with stain, and we brought a few pieces up to the house, and it wasn’t quite right. It was such a tease because we were so ready to get them installed! I just couldn’t keep them that way. So we did another round of color matches with a tinted top coat. After a few more tries, we NAILED it! We spent a few extra weeks reworking the color, so we were a bit behind schedule, which was tough. But worth it!
You probably won’t notice much of a difference in the color from the photos below to the final install, but it was noticeable in person! Thankfully it’s absolutely perfect now!
Our back panel of the island was also something I had a pretty clear vision on but took a few tries to get it just the way we wanted. From the width and depth of each groove and overall width of each plank, to the way they will connect with the furniture base, it all was carefully planned and executed. I was later inspired to add this same detail to the back wall of our pantry. It’s coming soon and I can’t wait! There may be a little twist on this planked look for our powder room vanity as well. The inspiration for the all of these pieces has just kept coming! It’s been really fun to “play” a little extra on this project.
bathroom vanities
Our bathroom vanities are also all custom. Our master vanity in particular took some extra work to figure out the details. You’ll see what I mean once the countertops go in. For now, I’m just admiring the clean look of the drawers. The guys at Faber used a consistent grain from left to right across the entire vanity. Once all the drawers are in, you’ll be able to appreciate this detail even more. You see this same detail throughout our kitchen cabinets! They were built into large sections and the grain matches perfectly top to bottom. It’s all in the details, and I’m glad because it makes my OCD real happy.
More pieces are on their way, including a whole bunch of floating shelves for different areas of the home and…cabinet hardware! Lots of good things coming!
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