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Need wood on curved island back wall

oldusty | Posted in Construction Techniques on July 22, 2008 05:51am

   Hello to All ,

          A client wants the back curved wall of the island to end up Cherry covering the drywall .It has not been framed yet but my guess there  may be 10-12′ at the most . I was hoping to use 1/4″ panels but the grain should go up and down.The wall is separate from the cabinets. How do you get it to bend or form to the curve .

    They would rather not have any frame and panel back there the stub wall will support a 42″ tall counter top . Any body done this before ? How to fasten ?

    the back wall curves in towards the center and out on the ends the counter follows , the wall looks like a segment of a 10 or 12 ‘ circle .

          thanks              dusty,box maker

Reply

Replies

  1. JTC1 | Jul 22, 2008 06:38pm | #1

    >>I was hoping to use 1/4" panels but the grain should go up and down.<<

    !/4" panels with grain running vertical (4' dimension) are available from some cabinet manufacturers - finished to match cabinets. Cherry available.

    Thought - could you cover the curved wall with 1/4" plywood then apply cherry veneer and finish in place?

    Never done this on a curve.

    Bump.

    Jim

    Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
    1. oldusty | Jul 22, 2008 08:14pm | #3

        Seems like I have seen some in modular cabinet supply  8'X4'.

             I think the 1/4" will need some help to make the bend smoothly .

              Glue it to the drywall ? panel adhesive , contact cement ? seams ?

                           thanks      dusty

  2. [email protected] | Jul 22, 2008 08:00pm | #2

    You can kerf the backside of plywood to get it to bend to a radius.  But, unless you can get a long piece with the surface ply 90-degrees to the normal orientation, you will have to make at least one joint.  So, if I were to try plywood, I would cut it into strips, bevel the edges, and install it like it were solid wood using biscuit joints and nails. 

    You could also look at using, engineered wood flooring, and glue/staple it into place.  It is cut with a back bevel on the tongue and groove joints so it should fit around the curve with out edge gaps.   



    Edited 7/22/2008 1:04 pm ET by Jigs-n-fixtures

  3. panicmechanic | Jul 22, 2008 10:22pm | #4

    Dusty,

    At the hospital I work at, we use a product called KerfKore. Makes curved fixture work a lot easier.

    http://www.interiorproducts.com/products_kerfkore.html

  4. Sasquatch | Jul 23, 2008 12:14am | #5

    I would recommend a tambour style for the curved area.  You can make that.

    1. oldusty | Jul 23, 2008 12:19am | #6

      Very interesting idea , thank you .

                     dusty

  5. sapwood | Jul 23, 2008 12:30am | #7

    I'm not really understanding exactly what wall you are trying to cover. You said the back wall of an island.... Would that mean one of the sides of the island itself? Because there is no back wall (like in the walls of a house) for an island. That's what makes it an island.

    Anyway.... I'll assume you're wanting to cover a 42" height of a 16' long wall that is curved. I'd use either paperbacked or two-ply veneer. It's an easy job to match the veneer edge. Apply it with wallpaper paste (or even titebond using a j-roller, sort of like a rubbed joint) over a really smooth substrate. Why not use 1/4" mdf over the drywall. It will bend to a pretty small curve. If that is too stiff, then how about 1/8" hardboard. Or, use a widebelt sander and make thin mdf.

    1. oldusty | Jul 23, 2008 02:12am | #8

      Hey Sappy ,

                The wall is a high back and will be curved .

            The island will consist of two base cabinets forming a 90° outside corner .

         With a lot of wasted space behind the cabinets. and this horseshoe shaped wall and countertop .A lot of granite , I could not talk them out of the designers design .

                   thank you                dusty

      1. sapwood | Jul 23, 2008 04:13am | #9

        Sappy? ... and I tried to be helpful.

  6. User avater
    basswood | Jul 23, 2008 04:18am | #10

    I've done something like that in beaded board on some fairly tight curves.

    1. oldusty | Jul 23, 2008 06:48am | #13

      basswood ,

                     That is very nice and another great idea .

                          thank you            dusty

  7. mathewson | Jul 23, 2008 04:51am | #11

    Contact a supplier of veneered plywood. you can buy 1/4" bendy, veneered in any wood you like with the grain running in either direction. Contact cement or similar can be used to adhere it.

    1. oldusty | Jul 23, 2008 06:49am | #14

        My normal supplier only could get it in Lauan .

                        d

  8. DougU | Jul 23, 2008 04:53am | #12

    Dusty

    I've laminated walnut on a pair of curved walls that ran 9' high by 12' long.

    As someone else mentioned, use kerfcore. This is a product that is some sort of fabric/paper glued to what appears to be strips of particle board.

    When we glued that kerfcore to the wall we had to make damn sure that the wall was truly plum and a continuous radius so that the kerfcore didn't take on the wave of the wall. Prep was the key to that, and a lot of it! Probably spent two week on that part alone.

    Once we had the kerfcore set we sanded and bondo'd to get everything even closer to perfect.

    We had book matched walnut that went on these walls with a flat strait run in-between the two radiused walls that was another 25' long.

    We used contact cement to attach our walnut veneer to the walls. We would lay two pieces of veneer on the floor(pieces of veneer were 4'X10' and we cut them down to 9' tall) with a sacrificial board underneath the two matting edges and run a laminate trimmer down the edge ripping off about a 1/2" of each piece, this assured us that we would have a dead nuts match for the joints. Mating the two edges together was probably the toughest part of this seeings how we were using contact cement and you know, once stuck its there to stay!

    When we were done we had two curved walls that were ~12' long with a 25' section of strait wall in-between them that flowed out like one single 9' high X 50' long ribbon of walnut. No visible joints, no gluing boards to the wall, just a smooth wall of walnut.

    Sorry, per the owners request, no pictures!

    Doug



    Edited 7/22/2008 9:55 pm ET by DougU

    1. oldusty | Jul 23, 2008 06:54am | #15

        Hi Doug ,

         So you veneered over the kerfcore ? so your seams were like 9' tall , whoa.

                    thanks             dusty

      1. DougU | Jul 23, 2008 01:59pm | #16

        Yes, we veneered to the kerfcore, the well prepped kerfcore.

        As you know there isn't a sheetrock wall that is constant as far as plum and continuos(in terms of radius or strait) goes so the prep to get it that way was the key.

        The ~9' joints were tough but certainly doable. We would just start one edge at the top and work our way down to get the joint so perfectly lined up, then rolling the rest of the sheet out was sorta slow but as long as you took your time not a real big deal. It's when you got all cocky and thought you were going good and could move faster that things started to give you fits!

        The reason that I would do it the way that you presented in your original post is cause its more difficult, hell anybody can nail beadboard to a wall, its not everybody that will atempt to pull off a veneered wall. Those are the jobs I live for, the rest of the stuff just bores me to death anymore, probably  time to get out! :)

        Doug

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