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Been trying to do as much diy as I can in our kitchen reno. Had a great time planning and doing this. Still more to come but feeling quite chuffed as a software developer by trade 🤓.
Congratulations @shaunbteam, your kitchen is looking fantastic.
Can you please provide a little more detail about what you have done? Kitchen renovations are always extremely popular with our members, and I'm sure they would love to hear more detail about the improvements you have made and the products you have used.
Let me also extend a very warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. We're so pleased to have you join us and look forward to reading more about your projects and plans. Please don't hesitate to post whenever you need a hand or have something to share with other members. And please let me know if you ever need assistance getting the most from the site, or have any feedback about how we can improve Workshop for you.
Thanks again,
Jason
Hey @Jason
Thanks, I would be happy to share more, I am quite proud of it. I will start at the begining 
When we bought the house, our kitchen didnt have enough space for our double door fridge so it had to kinda stand in the dining room which I was not to keen on. So we decided to extend the kitchen and dining room into one. I drew up all the plans and measurements. I got a quote to have it all done for me and thought I could do it way cheaper myself. So I gave it a go.
The carcasses are all glued and biscuit jointed. The wine rack is routed grooves in the side panels. Then to move the microwave off the counter I built another carcass which can house the plates and some other goodies too. This saved space on the bench and the cupboards. I lined the open cupboards with some plywood sheets and varnished them, this was to try and break the white a bit. I still didnt like the fridge being outside the kitchen, thats when we decided that the green bench would need to be removed and the island taken out so it flows better.
Here are some more pics of the carcass for the microwave and plates etc. Again I did the frame with biscuit joints and glue. The shelves in the middle were routed grooves and glued.
Here is another pic of the old bench with the island. The cupboards and drawers under the island I moved around into the gap next to the wine rack. It all fit quite nicely so that worked out well.
The wood makes the stove stand out quite nicely. This was the hevea (kaboodle) tops I bought at bunnings. This was before treating with Danish oil.
Here is me cutting out the hole for the sink.
Then the next part which I am currently still doing is adding another bench top and carcass where the small fridge used to be.
Once again this carcass is biscuit jointed and glued together. (18mm mdf). The tops are also hevea, but I got the thinner boards which are 18mm and not 36mm like the other top, I wanted to try double up the edges of the top to make it seem like 36mm tops like the other ones. I cut strips out of the hevea board and glued them to the underside. At the back I am just doubling it up with 18mm mdf off cuts because no one can see it there. I did this as an experiment in preparation for another project coming down the line soon for a new island.
Once again, I think the wooden bench tops look really good with the appliances on them.
Great stuff @shaunbteam, thanks so much for the extra detail and photos. Looking forward to seeing the completed results. Congrats again and look out for questions from other members inspired by your handiwork.
Jason
So our kitchen reno continues. I did some work on the island this weekend. It replaces a dining room table and we are trying to bring the kitchen and dining room together in a comfortable and inviting way.
We were after a over sized island, this one is 2.4m x 1.2m. I bought some hevea boards from bunnings, there were 1.2mx600mm. I got the biscuit joiner out and put 4 boards together.
The boards were only 18mm thick so I double them up on the edges. I also added some aluminum bracing underneath to prevent it from bending because there was alot of play on boards this size.
Then it was onto the carcass. I put the plans on paper and worked out how much mdf I needed, managing to cut correctly to use the offcuts too.
I decided to router the backing board and uprights so the whole thing comes together like a puzzle. Doing it this way really made it strong and required minimal clamping when it came to gluing.
The whole carcass is glued in the grooves I cut with the router. I didnt need to use any biscuits or screws except for the top board which I added for structural strength and to screw the hevea top to.
It still needs to be painted, I just put the undercoat on and will paint in the next few days.
Bringing the tops in. Put screws in from underneath to fasten it.
The project as it currently stands, still unpainted. Its amazing what you can do in a kitchen if you learn to make carcasses, it opened up a whole world of opportunity and saved me heaps of cash.
This mornings coffee
