It is all so fabulous! I love your kitchen and the wainscoting in the dining room is beautiful. Elegant and homey and warm and comfy and pretty--and so functional. I can see myself having a cuppa and chatting and asking to wash the lettuce cause it would be so nice to work in your kitchen. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

I'm a DIYer (not in your class) and I am totally impressed. I love the furniture feel to the cabs, and the overall look. I am seriously awed with that corner drawer cab!

Can you tell me what resources you used for the cabinet design?

Enjoy your kitchen!

OMG...you made all of those cabs??? And painted them??? What an amazing job! You should be extremely proud of yourself...it is a wonderful kitchen.

Wow! What an amazing job. I'm impressed with how quickly you got it done. We are to begin a remodle on Mon but we are having it done. My DH is a DIY person but decided not to take this one on although he will be doing some things himself.....lighting, backsplash and under cabinet lighting. His work is impeccable but his time lines stink! You should be proud of yourself.

Inset doors aren't easy but you did a great job. It all looks wonderful, and everything works together so well. I love the counters. Please report back on how hard or easy they are to keep.

VERY impressive!!! You have reason to be proud for sure!!

Much nicer than the old kitchen (understatement!)!!! Love the walnut counters--gorgeous!

Bravo!!!!! This one is so inspiring, not just because it turned out so beautifully, but because you've reinvigorated my own belief that I can handle my DIY reno that is moving along sluggishly. Thank you for sharing!

What more could I say other then....

Incredible......

Your kitchen looks sooo soooo soooo incredible.
I know how hard and tedious painting those cabinets are. But oh my goish you did everything. Iam so impressed

Awesome JOB

Beautiful kitchen..

What a change.. I keep scrolling through back and forth..back and forth

Wow! You are an extremely talented craftsman. I am in awe of the transformation. Everything looks wonderful.

@ mabeldingeldine.....regarding cabinet design.

My two main reference books were:

'Building Traditional Kitchen Cabinets' by Jim Tolpin....great old school style construction book.

'Building Kitchen Cabinets' by Udo Schmidt...a little more contemporary with his skills but also very good.

Plus just years of tinkering around with woodworking and other house projects.

phenomenal work, I love the ceiling and your attention to detail!
Lynn

I am so impressed you did it all yourself. That is just awesome. The counter top and ceiling are both fabulous.

Wow. Has that been exclaimed? :)

I have two questions, from one DIYer-by-poverty to another brave DIYer!

1) Not very important, but a point of curiousity. Did you stay within your $10K budget?

2) I'm getting ready to install my own inset doors. I haven't, because I don't know how to get that tiny, perfect spacing around the doors. What did you use to properly hang them? And the drawer fronts? I have read double sided tape on the latter, but again, there has to be something there because you only get one chance!

3) Can you come over and finish my dream? I mean Kitchen!!

Very, very well done.
Congrats!

wow! you are super talented!! congrats on an amazing accomplishment!! hope you are enjoying your new kitchen!

Very, very beautifully done! What a classy (and classic)looking kitchen. The tile is a nice touch and everything else really works perfect together. Just nice, nice, nice!

I am stunned!,this so fabulous. Please submit this to some magazine/contest.

I think it's all been said already so I ditto everyone else's comments. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Your kitchen is fantastic as are your DIY skills. Congratulation and enjoy!

I will just add my awe and admiration to the others....fantastic job!

Beautiful, and so amazing you DIY. I hope you are happy with your faucet's performance - the same one is being installed next week with my cabinets.

Morning!
I forgot a question last night. In this pic:

couldn't help coming back to look again.
Great job!

Did you make the countertops too?? I don't think I have ever seen the grain run front to back before. They are gorgeous!

We are having ours made, since we cannot even sharpen a pencil around here!!

Thanks, Nancy

Holy cow! You made those cabinets?? I am floored by your talent! They look amazing!

That walnut is gorgeous, and the whole kitchen has such a homey, comfortable, and classic vibe. I love your flooring as well!

What an incredible space you have created! Your wife must be ecstatic! Congratulations--it's wonderful!

Amazing work! I'm so so impresed by your cabinets! I'm impressed by the whole thing, but what a great job you did building the cabinets! The wainscoting is beautiful! The countertop is gorgeous! I can't wait to see your island. What a job well done, and what satisfaction you can have sitting an looking at your own work!

Counter top is gorgeous!!!

You did a phenomenal job!!

Congrats!!! Enjoy !!

You "nailed" it. Perfect. I especially like the floor to ceiling tile in one area. Beadboard ceiling is great, too.

And under 10k??? Hard to believe!

Hope you enjoy your kitchen!

That's outstanding. I'm in total awe of people who have this talent!!

You are to be congratulated big time! What great work and design, just lovely. The walnut butcher block is beautiful. My goodness, you must be more than happy and proud.

Jarne. My BIL is a firefighter and has a schedule exactly like yours and has learned to do exactly the kind of art that you have done here.

I am in awe. This is a gorgeous room. Congratulations!

Standing ovation here!! Fabulous job. I can't stop scrolling up and down to look at everything you did!! It may be under $10K but it looks like a million bucks!

Beautiful! You did an amazing job, your wife must be thrilled!

AMAZING. I am stunned that cost less than $10K - it looks like a $40K+ reno! You did a great job. Please post pics of the finished island.

Same with us. We did a lot of our kitchen, but not the cabinets themselves. Good for you!

This is one of the kitchens where you don't tell them who built it until after people look at it. Then you say "I wonder if you know my contractor?"

You must be SO thrilled. And proud! You did a fantastic job, and it's incredible that you put so much time and effort into this project, and did it all by hand. It's truly yours, and it turned out well. Congratulations on your beautiful space, I hope it makes you smile every time you step foot in your kitchen!

Oh my...absolutely amazing! Great job! Enjoy all your hard work!

What can I say that has not already been said? Really beautiful!!!

Holy smokes.

I took a cabinet-making class from my local Woodcraft.
Result: a garage lower cabinet with 1 drawer that would not close. Even the instructor could not figure it out what I had done wrong.

My favorite detail about your kitchen:
I love that you continued the backsplash tile up and down the whole wall after the cabinets ended, and over the door. I think that looks classy and European.

I took a cabinet-making class from Woodcraft, too. And the "prerequisites" since I knew nothing.

We weren't allowed to set the settings on tools, but could push wood thru them. We weren't allowed to make mistakes because the instructor didn't want to have "that" coming out of his class.

I did learn what zillions of my tools were, though.
And I did get the gist of making boxes, which is what cabinets ARE!!

Oh - and I learned about the Kreg pocket jig which changed everything.

Just fabulous! What a talent you are!

I love every single thing about your new kitchen. I am so impressed.

Ok, I'll try to hit the questions I am seeing here.

- Regarding door/drawer spacing for inset doors/drawers: I took the finished door/drawer opening on the cabinet and made sure to allow for an 1/8" gap when cutting doors and drawer fronts to fit in the opening. One of the learning curves for me building cabinets was understanding how even a 1/16" difference is visible. This was a difficult concept to grasp for someone who is used to doing rough framing (building decks and framing walls) where being 1/4" off is no big thing. Also, it was very important to make sure everything was perfectly square. Keeping things square and careful measurement meant everything fit when it was time for assembly. Minuscule adjustments were made with a hand planer.

- Attaching drawer fronts was a little tedious. I wound up tipping the cabinet on it's back, and simply laid the drawer front in the opening (on the drawer box.) Once I got it positioned, it got clamped and screwed in with two temporary screws from inside the drawer. When it was time for final install after paint, I simply removed the temporary screws, drilled proper counter sunk holes, added some wood glue and the screwed them in from the inside. Drawer pulls were also installed from the inside which also provided more attaching points. I highly doubt these drawer fronts will ever come loose.

- Installing doors and gapping them was pretty similar to the drawer fronts. One trick that I figured was using a finish nail like a shim; their diameter was about the exact gap I was looking for. I'd place them loose between the door and cabinet, position the door (which moved easily along the nails like rollers), clamped the door and screwed them to the hinges. I used an old school hinge to keep the traditional look but they were slightly adjustable for final install.

- Regarding the lower cabinet doors being used as a drawer front and how I attached them: This was done just like the drawer fronts, except I simply used more screws to attach them from the inside. This, plus sufficient wood glue, held them in place just fine. Also, keep in mind, the drawer boxes themselves are hard maple....nice and secure for the screws to hold to. The drawer slides are also effortless so there really is no torque on the fronts when pulling them open. I was concerned about this, but even fully loaded, they open effortlessly and my concerns are assuaged. I'm confident they won't come apart.

And thanks again for all of the kind words, comments and questions.

Amazing! I love how high end this kitchen looks. It is so beautiful and tasteful. Wow- cant believe you did it yourself. Gorgeous!

Whoops, missed the countertop question:

We bought these from Butcher Block Co. (which I would highly recommend BTW.) One design feature I pushed for was to have the grain run in all one direction. I wanted to see those end grains from the dining room and I didn't want a mitered corner AT ALL (kinda defeats the purpose of having the grain run in all one direction.)

We could've had them fully customized to fit our kitchen....but that comes at a price. to keep costs down, we ordered a couple various sizes of their pre-made slabs and then cut them onsite. One spec that we did ask for was that they not finish the edges (round over the cut edges.) I wanted them completely square so that we could cut them, biscuit and ring bolt them together without a gap showing. Once we had them all installed, we finished the edges with a palm sander....just knocked down the sharp edge and then sealed them with several coats of Waterlox. We don't do food prep directly on them so Waterlox was the choice for us.

Once we do the island, I'll be ordering up an end grain maple top from them and that will finished with mineral oil only as it will be used for food prep.

WOW, and Congratulations!! You just pulled off an amazing, truly craftsman job and it looks wonderful! You should be very proud. Love all the little custom touches!

mouth dropped open...:O
I am in awe.

I'm a big admirer of the whole-wall tiled look. So thank you for doing it and providing me the eye-candy!

Tell me more about your beadboard ceiling! I want a similar look in our kitchen and am curious how expensive it is, and how difficult to install. :)

Amazing transformation.

What a wonderful transformation! I love everything about it and appreciate you sharing the details. The fact that your first try at cabinet building you perfected inset speaks to your prefectionism and it shows in all the details throughout your kitchen and DR remodel. You truly are a craftsman! The whole thing is beautiful--enjoy!

Good thing you have a work schedule where you get so much time off - it will take you a LONG time to read through the glowing comments! All I could think going through it is "Wow."

I especially love the ceiling, wainscoting, and countertops. Amazing job! Please post again when you finish the island.