An honorable mention in the 2013 Design Portfolio contest: Kitchen/Bath Cabinets category, this beautiful, high-end kitchen created by Boulder, CO-based BKI Woodworks highlights the appeal and warmth of koa wood.

The koa tree is found only in Hawaii. The wood has historically been used to build canoe hulls, furniture, cabinetry, and ukuleles. It has a nice color range from a honey yellow to the rich brown you see here.

The beauty of the color and figuring of koa wood stands out in any room, whether it’s a single art object or a full kitchen of koa cabinets. In this kitchen, BKI bookmatched and endmatched the koa with the grain running horizontally and finished it with a clear lacquer allowing the character of the wood to stand out on its own.

Materials used in this project included horizontal grain bookmatched and endmatched veneers glued with matching solid wood edgebanding. A veneer press, edgebander, and sliding table saw are among the equipment used in manufacturing the kitchen cabinetry.

CRAFTING THE DESIGN
Started in 1979, BKI is one of the longest operating professional cabinetry and woodshops in the Boulder area. BKI manufactures commercial and residential custom cabinetry in contemporary, modern, transitional and traditional style.

Its’ mission includes building for performance, permanence, durability, and to add value to any space. The company’s motto: Cabinetry + Woodwork Solutions for All Your Design Ideas.

“Everyday we work with architects, designers, contractors, and home and business owners to bring their design ideas to fruition,” the company says. “It’s great being the local woodworking company to build incredibly-awesome, modern, high-gloss kitchen cabinets, or that sleek restaurant bar that folks casually lean against at their favorite watering hole.” View this project at woodworkingnetwork.com/designportfoliogallery