Hand Carved Basket Weave Legs for New Kitchen Island Remodel
One of our most intriguing and stunning pieces at Osborne has to be the Basket Weave Design. Our Basket Weave Collection features hand carved island legs, corbels, and moldings for various application. The pure detail of the pieces really set this collection apart.
Today, let’s take a look at a project by Kevin B. Kevin chose to use four of Osborne’s Basket Weave Island Legs (Part #1474). Let’s hear from Kevin about his full kitchen project:
“This island was a project to replace our stock cabinets that were falling apart after ten years. We had just gotten granite countertops and existing stock cabinet construction didn’t really look too substantial. In addition, the epoxy drawer slides in the particle board weren’t holding out.
I wanted the replacement cabinet to look like a showcase piece and include your columns. The basket weave pattern looked interesting, but in order to utilize it, I needed 3.5″ of cabinet space on the side to integrate it. I decided to make that area hidden shallow cabinets on both ends. That side cabinet is essentially a 3.25″ (including door thickness) deep frame attached to the main cabinetry with screws from the interior of the main cabinet. Hinges are Blum.
Wanting to utilize the cabinet space more effectively, I also built hidden drawers in the kicker area of the cabinet. These use side mounted soft close drawer glides.
The remaining part of the cabinets are normal drawers with Blum under-mount slides. The new cabinets are more stout than stock. I utilized 1/2″ply for the drawer bottoms and 5/8″ oak for the drawer sides. The weight of iron skillets is more suited for this beefier construction than the 1/8″ mdf bottoms and 1/2″ particle board drawer side that were on the previous cabinets. 3/4″ veneer core plywood was used in the cabinetry. 1/2″ ply and maple were used for the doors and drawer fronts.
The finish is achieved using 3 sprayed layers of Sherwin Williams ProClassic acrylic semigloss paint (light sanding between coats). This was followed by an application Minwax walnut gel stain, immediate removal of most of the gel stain with a cloth, and more stain removal using a rag soaked in mineral spirits. This left the walnut stain only in the nooks and crannies, bringing out the basket weave pattern. I let the Minwax stain dry for several days and then sprayed it with water-based polyurethane in satin. The polyurethane adds real depths to the basket weave that isn’t apparent in photos. The columns were ordered in rubberwood. Not knowing too much about rubber wood, I was a little apprehensive, but they compare to ash in weight, strength, open pores, and finished extremely well. BTW Your packing went through the shipper without a single dent or scratch on the columns – well done.”
Amazing work Kevin. Thank you for sharing! Enjoy your new kitchen island!
