My friend and former secretary has asked me -- and now Steve -- to build some cabinets for a pantry area next to the kitchen at her new house. That project will take a while to percolate but I decided to build here a kitchen island in the meantime to replace a table she has been using to expand her counter space.
Her cabinets have a dark cherry stain so at first I was going to go paint grade to avoid clashing. Rooting around the shop, however, I found enough figured maple boards for the main pieces and thought that would fit well so I went for it. I had to buy the prefab butcher block top and maple 1x3s for the slats below, but all the other maple and one plywood for the drawers and cabinet bottom were in the shop. It's hard to tell from the photos but the figuring on the cabinet and drawer fronts is really pretty.
She wanted a knife drawer and another for large cooking utensils, so that's what she got. The knife blocks are maple with non tarnishing felt. Very happy with the results, except that I don't love the coloring of the butcher block. Terri loves it but may not be able to use it fully until she can get over the idea of marring it. ๐