Pewter Grills for the Hutch

I am now starting to work on the kitchen island and the hutch. To give the hutch a farmhouse feel, we are putting grills in the cabinet doors. We got the idea from touring through the PDX Street of Dreams. Here is a picture.



Since most of the hardware in the kitchen is either brushed or antique nickle, we are going with pewter. Here is an image from the Rockler web site:

This stuff is not cheap. A 16" x 42" piece is $90 at Rockler. I did an online search for a similar product, and only found 1 at about 50% more. We are cutting this into 4 pieces, so the cost is reasonable.

Kitchen Storage

Here are some pictures of the storage we have so far in the kitchen.

All of the upper cabinets are an extra two inches deep (14") to allow for spice racks to be mounted to the doors. I posted another picture of this earlier - this one has the cabinet stocked.

Here is a picture of all the pullouts along the back wall - everything is full extension. I wanted to get a pitcture of this before I started working on the island.

[Link to photo set]

Installing Granite - Part Six: Grouting - Done!

The granite installation is complete. It took longer than I wanted it to, mainly due to traveling and other family activites (skiing - yeah!). We grouted the joints using Spectra-Lock epoxy grout. As you can see in the photos, the joints are hardly noticable. We mixed 4 parts black with 1 part brown to match the stone color.

Here are my observations on using expoxy grout for the first time:

• The instructions were very clear and straightforward.
• Mixing the stuff is easy.
• I had about 10 times what I needed for this counter-top, since there are very few joints. Next time (doing the island and hutch) I will mix a 1/3 or 1/4 batch.
• It flows nicely. I used a small rubber float with no problems. Its more sticky than regular grout, which I think works to your advantage. (Note: I have grouted thousands of joints working in masonry - if you are new to this, it may be bit more challenging)
• Clean-up was simple. You use water with a little bit of white vinegar, and the residue comes right off.
• It takes a long time to dry. Its been in about 6 hours and is still slightly soft. Make sure to allow for over-night dry time.

Here is the corner - the location with the most joints:

Here is how I decided to do the under-mount sink with the tiles (the blue tape is to mask for the grout). We kept the tile back by the faucet to make a space for sponges / scrubbers without having them sit on the granite. We think this will keep the counter cleaner.

So, would we do these very large granite tiles again? Yes - for a total of $25 a square foot ($20 for the granite and about $5 for everything else) we are very happy with the quality of the counter top.

[Link to photo set]