Just so you know, "Brick Pool House" is not just about the quasi-mythical "Brick Pool House" that I built from 2011-2012. (It's not Brick and it's not a Pool House, but those were the ideas when I named the blog. The Brick Pool House as such will not be built, but the idea of over-the-top quality building remains.)
This blog is about all my homebuilding projects...
Back in the real home, one of the details which bothers me the most is the original kitchen cabinets, particularly the ones under the sink counter which have gotten very dirty looking (I could even use the word "nasty").
Now I've spent lots of money on my home (above and beyond the original distressed purchase), but this detail remains and continues to irk me for several reasons. One is that generally kitchen remodeling is very expensive. For the price of my workshop, which increases my total fully air conditioned living space by 15%, I could have done a very basic kitchen remodel that wouldn't increase my living space at all (in fact, it would probably decrease it slightly). I'd like to have non-nasty looking cabinets, but it's not worth making big sacrifices for.
Another reason that's come to mind recently is maintaining low VOC inside my house. Unfortunately, I cannot simply leave windows open much (if at all) for my home, because the weather is not sufficiently temperate (except on certain days). For this reason, I'm steering clear of oils, varnishes, and urethanes for finishing. Even low VOC latex coating is pushing it.
I've generally liked dark colors for wood. And I've long thought of simply using urethane-oil combo stain. One or two coats and it looks like finished wood. But few things outgas as much. And the dark color, underneath the sink, has a tendency to hide spills. You're not sure what to wipe. That's how it's gotten to look so nasty.
So I'm now thinking white. And, to eliminate VOC's altogether, this idea: use colored plastic sheets glued to the existing cabinets. Mounted just so, only tiny slits could separate one panel from the next, so the entire undersink area is effectively one large piece of white colored plastic.
My first idea was polycarbonate (e.g. lexan) sheeting. I was worried if it came in nice thick sheets. And it is available here in sheets up to 1/2 inch thick! But unfortunately only in clear. Clear won't work. Other options are polypropylene sheet, which is very reasonably priced and available in translucent white. Nylon is available in natural off white, but nylon is very expensive. They sell PVC, but in dark grey only. I was also thinking about formica.
This blog is about all my homebuilding projects...
Back in the real home, one of the details which bothers me the most is the original kitchen cabinets, particularly the ones under the sink counter which have gotten very dirty looking (I could even use the word "nasty").
Now I've spent lots of money on my home (above and beyond the original distressed purchase), but this detail remains and continues to irk me for several reasons. One is that generally kitchen remodeling is very expensive. For the price of my workshop, which increases my total fully air conditioned living space by 15%, I could have done a very basic kitchen remodel that wouldn't increase my living space at all (in fact, it would probably decrease it slightly). I'd like to have non-nasty looking cabinets, but it's not worth making big sacrifices for.
Another reason that's come to mind recently is maintaining low VOC inside my house. Unfortunately, I cannot simply leave windows open much (if at all) for my home, because the weather is not sufficiently temperate (except on certain days). For this reason, I'm steering clear of oils, varnishes, and urethanes for finishing. Even low VOC latex coating is pushing it.
I've generally liked dark colors for wood. And I've long thought of simply using urethane-oil combo stain. One or two coats and it looks like finished wood. But few things outgas as much. And the dark color, underneath the sink, has a tendency to hide spills. You're not sure what to wipe. That's how it's gotten to look so nasty.
So I'm now thinking white. And, to eliminate VOC's altogether, this idea: use colored plastic sheets glued to the existing cabinets. Mounted just so, only tiny slits could separate one panel from the next, so the entire undersink area is effectively one large piece of white colored plastic.
My first idea was polycarbonate (e.g. lexan) sheeting. I was worried if it came in nice thick sheets. And it is available here in sheets up to 1/2 inch thick! But unfortunately only in clear. Clear won't work. Other options are polypropylene sheet, which is very reasonably priced and available in translucent white. Nylon is available in natural off white, but nylon is very expensive. They sell PVC, but in dark grey only. I was also thinking about formica.
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