The French Cleat System updated

Remember way back when - you know, long, long ago - when we put up the French Cleat System in the kitchen?  Well, we finally (finally!) made the little shelves that actually go on the darn thing. Took a while to decide what I wanted, to fit something non-essential into the project list, and to just get it done.

And I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Functional and decorative - woot!

There are shelves for supplies, recipe boxes, and a basket for printed recipes that I'm about to try. The little metal recipe box is from my Grandma and has lots of family recipe cards in it. The larger green metal box is more current and is full of 4x6 cards that I've filled with recipes I truly use. Nothing in these boxes that isn't actually made on a regular basis.

Easily reached recipes

I also wanted a box for organizing my cookbook recipes. I hate not being able to find a recipe I know I own...somewhere, in some book, maybe. So Chris built me a box that I'm using as a card catalog. Just the recipe name, cookbook title, page number, and any notes I think relevant. This way I don't have to write down the full recipe - cause why do that if I own the cookbook?  

Cherry custom box

I've also got some decorative items up there. Butter paddles that my Mom gave me before she died and a pretty blue enamelware ladle from her too. The carved wooden butcher we picked up when we lived in Poland back in 1996/97. Chris added a cleat to his back and now he has a special spot off the counter.

The cleat (and cleaver)

I asked for a cookbook rest so I could showcase what book I'm using that month. I culled quite a few of my cookbooks back in the "recipe a week" resolution period but I probably definitely need to get rid of more. So I'm looking to cook from a book a month to see if there are enough recipes to keep it or just get it from the library from now on.  

This one is a keeper

And this is the book rest. I didn't want it to function as a holder-opener (what else would you call that kind of thing?) since I don't use this counter for cooking that often. I just wanted something to show the front and this works great.

Maple with walnut accent

This is the cleat for the book rest. They look a bit clunky from the side, but on the wall, that all disappears and they do a great job of showcasing the items on them.

The cleat

I've still got room on the wall if I want to add more stuff, but for now I'm happy with the spacing and function. Everything I use regularly is in easy reach and stuff that used to take up cabinet or drawer space (I'm looking at you antique meat grinders) are now out and visible.

The Kitchen Island

My kitchen has a big island in the middle of it. I designed it with multiple work zones: an antique butcher block forms one corner conveniently near the stove; a marble slab covers the other end for working dough and making candy; a long run of open space provides room to mix ingredients and stage stuff; in the middle are my stand mixer and food processor.  

The end by the stove

The end nearest the table

Supporting part of the worktop is an antique cabinet that used to be in an optometrists office - it was full of old lenses and blanks for making eye glasses when we got it. Chris had to do some woodworking repairs and I had to scrub the heck out of it (it had been stored in a garage for years) but it wasn't in bad shape overall. It had originally been constructed in sections and I chose to utilize only the ones that had stacked drawers (I'm sure we'll find good use for the others, probably in the studio).

The unit with large, deep drawers supports the side nearest the sink and has baking pans and food processor supplies. 

Wow, do I need to paint that kick board!

The other drawers hold similar stuff

The unit with shallow drawers sits on the side nearest the refrigerator and is full of baking tools and supplies.  

Yup, that kick board needs paint too.

Before anyone says there is no way those drawers will stay that organized, yes, they will. I've had them like this for well over a year. You just need the luxury of space. An overriding goal in this kitchen design was to have enough space to not stack or jumble things. These drawers (and many of the other drawers in the kitchen) are shallow (3" or so) so I can fit more of them into a standard cupboard space. More drawers = less jumbled mess.

I can always find my measuring spoons

Chris made the worktop by joining some ash boards that we picked up at auction. Originally I was going to use maple from the property but the grain on these was just too good to pass up.

Custom fitting the new top 

One corner of the worktop was supported by shelving that had consisted of 2x4s and plywood for the last few years. I wanted something much prettier so got some old sewing table legs. These things were nasty - rusted, pitted, and no table attached at all. Just two legs left outside for who knows how long. I scrubbed them, scraped them, sanded them, and painted them. And they look awesome!

The restored antique sewing table legs

What it's replacing (and look at that grain!)

In place and ready to fill

Love the pop of red 

Four shelves of wonderful: shallow top shelf for electronic scale and a cutting board; next shelf for sugars, choc chip jar; then mixing bowls; bottom for flour (yes, I have five bins of different flours down there - don't judge). Everything is easy to grab as I'm mixing and just as easy to put away despite messy fingers. 

Probably should have pushed back the dog food bucket...

Chris didn't care for the simple maple blocks that we had supporting the worktop so he carved some new ones.

Chris getting cute with the worktop supports

So now the island is finished and it's functioning beautifully. I can easily move the mixer and food processor to a side counter (or even to my workroom) when we host dinners so that space is available for a buffet. And it creates a nice gathering area in the kitchen - plenty of room to move around it while still providing access to food, drink, and tools. 

Solving the pull problem

The drawer and door handles for the kitchen have been a bit of a struggle. I really wanted to use antique cutlery for the pulls. But I really didn't want to drill through the utensils and leave a bolt head visible. So the first attempt was Loc-Tite. That ultimately failed so I moved to attempt number two which was JB-Weld. Most of those failed as well. The metal utensils were simply too slick, even with sanding/roughing the surfaces, for the adhesives to hold up to repeated openings (even if you're being gentle, there is still a jerk when first breaking the inertia of a closed drawer).

If I wanted to use cutlery I'd have to drill through and figure out a way to make it appeal to my sense of aesthetic.

This was definitely not the look I wanted

I'd gotten cute with some of the decorating on the glued pulls and realized the copper spiral looked pretty cool. And I could use that to cover the bolt heads!

These decorated but undrilled pulls gave me my idea

The actual drilling was easy - the drill press, a clamp or two, and a sharp drill bit made quick work of going through the utensils. It was really neat to see what various metals were under the silver plating - copper, brass, and a mystery grey material (not lead - that would be too soft, probably nickel) all showed up as the surface was breached. Then drill through the drawer front, bolt together, turn some copper wire, and decorate. Here's how it looks:

Much better than the first picture

These are wicked hard to photograph. Here is the north wall - first stack is forks, second stack is knives, third is spoons - a complete place setting.

Maybe you can zoom?

 Here's another closeup of one of the spoons.

I love the copper/silver contrast

I hunted antique stores, my Mom's house, my stash, and flea markets for the cutlery. These ice tea ( ice cream?) spoons came from Newberry's!

So you can see both ends

Here's a shot from when it was just glued and tied. I made sure to place the new drill hole so that the logo was still visible. Several of the utensils had maker's marks or initials on the handles and I tried to make sure those could still be seen.

Before drilling

And here's a shot of the cocktail forks from the leftmost stack on the north wall. Yes, those tines are sharp but the drawers are set back deeply enough that I don't catch anything on them. Although I do put corks on the tines when the little ones come to visit. A quick and simple solution that saves a lot of worrying that they might poke an eye out on those things.

Such cool lines

I really liked the decoration I used on the left side of the fork but I'd have to remove it if I drilled through. So I drilled the right side and left the other glued - here's hoping it doesn't fail.

Mash up of attachment styles

The south wall (sink wall). 

All spoons

So now the drawers and doors all have pulls and they're all unique. Drilling and bolting the pulls has made them incredibly secure and I actually like how the copper coiling helps tie together what could be a visual mess. Since the cutlery is all different styles the color and shape of the copper coil adds a consistent design element. Perfect. And let's talk cost - antique cutlery is very inexpensive unless you're actually buying silver sets. I paid anywhere from 25 cents per piece up to $2 for a few that were an unusual shape or style. Compare that to $8 per piece for even inexpensive drawer pulls and I think I got a bargain.

The French Cleat System

Chris built me a french cleat system for the kitchen so I could have additional wall storage. Plus I think it's a nice design feature - pretty and functional. Woot!

What the heck is a french cleat, you ask? It consists of a wall-mounted molding with a 30-45 degree slope and a matching angle cut into the unit to be hung. It's typically used to mount cabinets and heavy things because the molding can span the studs which means it's wonderfully secure on the wall. And the units you mount can be easily arranged to preference because they don't have to be directly lined up on the stud - the molding took care of that for you. 

My idea was a decorative cleat system that would fill in between the two barrister bookcases that I use in the kitchen.

Just needs something in the middle...

I wanted something sort of pallet-like because that fits with the whole industrial-farmhouse vibe I've got going (I do live in a barn after all). But I wanted it pretty. So we picked some maple boards from the property wood pile and found some with great figuring. 

Look at that grain!

I designed the size and style, Chris cut all the boards and sloped them appropriately, I gave them a good poly, and we put it all together. Then it came time to hang it.

As I mentioned, when you hang something from a cleat you don't have to worry about evenly spaced studs. Good thing as the studs in this wall weren't were we needed them. So we used a cleat to hang the cleat system.

Finding studs

A cleat is mounted to the wall then the matching cleat on the unit is slotted onto it.

Carefully positioning the unit

Ta da!

I wish the photo showed the grain better. In real life it's truly beautiful. Functional looking, but beautiful.

And here is an example of the shelves we'll build for it. Chris banged this one together from scrap wood (maple, but still scraps) just so we could get a feel for how it would work and look.

Fits perfectly

I then tried to create a shelf to hang my antique meat grinders and mucked it up so badly that I burned the evidence. I'll keep trying and get that thing filled eventually.

All the things...

We've had a wonderfully busy summer and autumn. So busy in fact that Chris asked me what we actually do for fun anymore. That inspired some goofball shenanigans but not much time to put together blog posts. So here's a quick preview of what I need to catch up on:

I took apart an old chair and will turn it into a really cool dog bed. Eventually. At the moment it's eating up an enormous amount of space in my project room. 

Cooper's future bed.

Chris finished the kitchen cabinetry. Which means I'm madly drilling holes in antique cutlery to install pulls. Then I'll get to actually fill the drawers and get organized. Woot!

Hooray for cupboard doors!

I completed my eight week pottery class. Had great fun and made a substantial amount of nifty dishes. We'll definitely be doing more throwing of pots.

Just a fraction of the total haul.

While Chris worked on cabinets, I installed the hardwood flooring upstairs. 600 square feet of oak boards went down in a few weeks. Let's hear it for pneumatic nailers!

Laying the first row

Chris also constructed my French Cleat system for the North wall of the kitchen. Now I need to actually construct all the boxes and shelves to make it usable. So much storage! 

This is going to be awesome.

Once I got the hardwood installed we moved on to organization upstairs. We decided to see if we'd like bookshelf molding at the ceiling. We did! We've replaced the temporary shelf with one that has hidden brackets and it reaches across the wall and to each small window. 

 Just to see if we'd like it.

Chris also got the kitchen island finished and put together the new shelves for the sewing table support/base. This is where all my baking ingredients will go and it supports the Northeast corner of the kitchen island.

It'll have 4 shelves by the time we're done.

And of course no molding job is complete until you put up window trim. This is the studio. We're still working on the bedroom upstairs.

Love the way it frames the view

And we hiked and enjoyed the property.

Raccoon deer?

I'll write detailed posts about all this and more but wanted to get some kind of record out here before the holidays push it all out of my mind. 

Kitchen progress - the historical tour

Okay, so it's only 4 years, but it's our history so I'm sticking with the title. Chris has been diligently working on finishing my kitchen cabinetry and I'm going to do some posts on that soon. But I was looking through old pictures and realized that the kitchen has come a long way since we moved in. We've made many plans about layout, lived with improvements and additions, and changed those plans to accommodate how we really live and cook. It's been a true luxury having time and skills to make this kitchen our own.  

Move-in day, February 2013

March 2013 - gained a temporary sink

April 2013 - added chrome racks

August 2013 - added the tool chests (love those things) 

July 2014 - moved the butcher block for the 5th time

August 2015 - added window trim 

Oct 2016 - barrister bookcases for future use 

Back in November of 2016 we officially began building the cabinetry. January 2017 saw the install of the antique kitchen sink. And then the last months have been spent building the rest of the cabinetry, making many, many drawers, trying out various ways of attaching silverware as drawer handles (that'll be a post - most of the methods failed and I've finally found one that truly works), and setting up the kitchen in general. I've now got tons of storage space and a really nifty cleat system that I haven't figured out how to fully utilize yet. As I said - many posts to come. But it's been fun looking back on where we've been.