Brads spelcafe is a start up in Malmö, they have recently moved into their first "on the high street" location. In doing so they inherited an L shaped counter which they needed modifications too.

Design

Technically the design was make it straight. The design was simple, remove the top, take off the sticky out bit (technical term), extend it a little then reattach the top. Secondly they had initially wanted an under the counter fridge but the counter was too low. I love problem solving, and my idea was to create a some raisers for it up stand on, raising it by 2.5cm. I installed some temporary ones to see if the staff would still be comfortable with the raise in height before making the final full length. This also helped with raising the MDF off a kitchen floor.

Creation

Taking the top off.

There were screws underneath, so I had assumed that was all that was holding the top on. Simple unscrew and take off... No this would be the hardest part of the process. The top was not only screwed in, it was also glued and metal doweled on every meeting surface. I returned oscillating multi tool, a prybar and a collection of swear words and got the set off. The 'sticky out bit' was dealt with in the same way.

With the counter top off, it was sanded down cut to size and round over applied to the edges.

Modifying the carcass

The extension was created from the mdf in the now detached sticky out bit. It was attached to the main carcass using wooden dowels, glue and some interior framing.

The final front raiser was dadoed with the tablesaw and cleaned up with a router plane. A front angle of 10 degrees was cut along its length and then like a design feature.

The top was attached (using only screws) and then a rubbish of Osmo counter top oil applied.

With everything raised i could now cut out the hole for the under counter fridge using a jigsaw and some very awkward angles. With the fridge now in place, I could make some rather ugly load bearing planks that would sit hidden between the refrigerator and counter top to provide more structural integrity.

Lessons learnt

Doing on site work using only a push bike is interesting, you end up cycling with a load of tools in panniers and long pieces of lumber in back packs or IKEA bags.

Also when using an oscillation multi tool only use the wooden cutting blade if you're certain it's only wood; all other times user a multi material one.

Materials