Thursday, February 17, 2011

Reworking a Register Grate for the Kitchen

We are so close! We just have a couple small things left, then the kitchen project will officially be completed.

Through the course of this project, we were faced with moving the floor vent, or modifying it, in order to put the refrigerator in. We (rather, Lee, our contractor) put a couple plates over the 10x8 inch floor vent opening, making it 6x8 inches. This meant cutting the register grate down to size- loosing the functioning louvers and stability.

The original:

Defintely not going to fit:

I've been to the The ReBuilding Center a few times, and have seen the same register grates that we have in the house, already. I headed over there Monday, to pick up one of these matching grates (hoping to reuse the original when we finish the basement). I was surprised that I couldn't find a single grate that was the same style, let alone the right size.

And there it was:

The perfect 6x8 inch grate. Sure, not exactly the same design, but it was the right size! With functioning louvers! At the counter, the woman sold it to me for $3 off. I figured it was a fairly small gamble, and brought that baby home.

Just the right size:

At home, I ran it through the dishwasher and sanded as much rust and paint as I could. Inspired by DIY projects of others, I prepared to rework this new grate.


Using a Dremel tool, I trimmed just over 1/4" off the long side. A few coats of spray paint later, it was finished. I'm very pleased with the result. A small step for DIY, but a leap towards polishing off the kitchen.

The reworked grate, in place:

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