When we remodeled our kitchen, my wife wisely decided that I would not be building the kitchen cabinets, largely because she wanted her new kitchen in a timely fashion. However, we agreed that I would build the island. We went with IKEA cabinets and in order to make the island tie in with the rest of the kitchen, I incorporated an additional cabinet into my design.
From the start, I knew this was going to be a wacky project just based on the design. I spent about a month searching for just the right Douglas Fir log that I could use as a support. I finally found one on a friend’s property on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. I took it down to the local saw mill and had it sawed vertically. Total cost – $10! The bugs stopped crawling out of it after a couple of months. I soaked it for about a week in “Wood Juice” and the checking stopped.
In the meantime, I had an arborist come to the property to trim my trees. He told me that he had a band saw mill and a barn full of wood that I should come look at. I picked out some Elm and brought it home to acclimate to my shop. The trouble with buying wood from your arborist is that they often remove trees that aren’t healthy. After I glued up the table top and took it to my cousin’s mill-work shop for a drum sanding, I discovered that the Elm tree was probably removed because it had yellow Elm disease. Based on the pictures, I will let you guess where the soft spots were.
I thought about all kinds of things to solve the problem, but in the end I went to The Wood Whisper website for inspiration. I watched the video on Router Inlay and I must say my initial response was…”yeah, right”. In my experience, good things do not happen when the router gets away from the table on which it is mounted. However, I didn’t have any other ideas, so I did a trial run on a test piece. The results weren’t stellar, but they were close enough that I figured I had a chance.
We chose the fish theme as a nod to my grandfather who had a fly fishing business. The fish are stylized versions of his marketing materials. I couldn’t be more happy with the results.
With the inlay step accomplished, I went on to finish the project. The Padauk breadboard ends are mortise and tenon with Walnut pins. The Padauk bar top has an Elm “sea rail” with live ends. The remainder of the carcass is Philippine Mahogany. I used General Finishes Satin–way too many coats!
And my wife is happy! So, thank you Marc, for a really great tutorial that sent me in a direction I never would have found on my own. I appreciate all you do!
Excellent execution!
She screwed up by not letting YOU build all of them! Thats awesome!
wowwwwwwww
Wow Bruce that is fantastic and really complements the rest of the kitchen. I like the raised lip details around the upper platform. Great idea with the fish inlay too. You must really be proud of such a good job.
Man, I love this piece. The inlay is stellar and brings it all together. Nice work and kitchen! –Nick
The story of how you made the beautiful piece is priceless… The fish was an outstanding idea and you inlaid them beautifully. Great work!
Simply wonderful. I like that the rest of the cabinets are very plain. That leaves your beautiful creation to draw all the attention it deserves. Your family will enjoy this for years to come.
Wow! Bruce. Looks great!! Truly one of a kind. I really like the inlay, I have done some myself and it takes time to get it right. Great work! Are you considering hiring yourself out now?
Bruce you get an A+ for both design and execution…this is an awesome piece of which you should be very proud. Great job, thanks for sharing this wonderful piece.
Bruce,
Outstanding idea and great work. Can you tell me how I can learn to do inlays like that? This is something I can learn in the next few years as I fill up my wood shop with equipment.
Truly inspiring…
Thanks for sharing,
Dave
Dave,
He said in the post he checked out The Wood Whisperer’s Router Based Inlay video, click that link and check it out for yourself, it’s one of my personal favorites :)
Fantastic idea and execution on the inlay. Looks fantastic.
First, absolutley beatiful work!
I had to laugh a little reading your comments about using the router outside of the table. Marc’s video on inlay is actually what introduced me to TWW, and I thought the same thing.
Keep up the good work. I would love to have that kind of talent. Your inlays aren’t just beautiful, but they have purpose and history. Truely inspiring work.
This is spectacular. Love the finish job and the inlay. Choice of woods is great. Whatever you are doing for a living…stop. Do some more of this.
truly spectacular!
I do kitchen cabinet designs for part time job.. This homemade project is absolutely fantastic. No commercial designs I know of compares to this creative and beuatiful design. Great job…