the big island is in its new home ... after a month or so of awaiting finish sample approvals and then actually doing the finishing, delivery and assembly, we're done ... it was nip and tuck getting it out the front door, but we got it, and, it looks great on site, perfectly proportioned to it's new room, which is, actually, quite a bit larger and at present, emptier than our shop ... it was a challenging and engaging project on a lot of levels and i look forward to seeing it with the appliances, sink and granite as well as the rest of the furnishings for the room in place ... onward ...click the photos to enlarge them ...
from the dining room side ...
the piece is lightly distressed at the early stages of the finishing and we sanded the broken edges a little more aggressively than usual as the finishing progressed, creating highlights on the corners and a 'softness' than is often found on well used antiques.
carry it in ... set it down ... perfectly level over the entire 16', both ways ... we jacked the shop floor up to all level before we started because, having worked with this builder for almost ever, we knew it would be this way ... with the design as it was, there was no place for shimming anyway ... all good ....
here trevor is installing the steel granite overhang support. it's 1 x 3 x 1/4" rectangular tubing stiffened with the box beam cross pieces visible in the photo below.
the finish schedule was a variation of our typical finish process using lockwood dyes, minwax fast dry polys, gel stains and wiping polys. see more finishing posts here ...
we made a couple different sample boards before we got what we wanted ... i can't remember the last time we used stained quartered white oak for a piece and i'm pretty sure we haven't ever done a distressed, stained version of it before ... i'm happy with the results. on the sample we gel stained before the seal coat which, in my opinion, requires a longer dry time before the top coats and is slightly harder to manipulate on the unsealed wood ... next time i would do as we regularly do and seal the second coat of stain in before applying the gel layer. it was a big finishing project and took a long time but as in cooking, what step/ingredient would you leave out? in my 30+ years of experience and research, there are no shortcuts to a deep rich finish, only many, many steps ... ask the experts ...there are a few earlier related posts for this project at the links below ...
turning the columns
getting it all together, attaching the columns and cornice support structure
finish process and delivery photos