It's Island Time

My personal life motto is "If you keep waiting for someone to help you, nothing will ever get done." I apply this saying in all aspects of my life: work, fitness, and of course, household projects.

I love my kitchen. I've been fortunate enough to move into a home where the kitchen is fairly new and even luckier that the kitchen (cabinetry, finishes, appliances) is my style.  Despite this, something about the kitchen has always seemed "off". When we moved into the home, the kitchen housed a full-sized dining table that could sit six people with room to spare. There are a ton of cabinets but the pantry is sparse, which means that I had to utilize space that should have solely been for dishes and pots with food items. If the kitchen is the heart of the home, then my heart was seriously lacking something. What could it be?

An island of course!

I've always been a big fan of kitchen islands. I love the utility of it. You can use the island to prep food, eat your food, serve your food and you can build storage in your island to house kitchen appliances and pantry items. The Veruca Salt in me kicked in and I started the island project just like every other household project I start: whining to my husband, "Honey! I WANT A KITCHEN ISLAND! AND I WANT A KITCHEN ISLAND NOW!"

I love my husband but I will tell you two things about him: 1) He won't buy me a kitchen island because those things are expensive. For the kitchen island I wanted (storage space, breakfast bar overhang and at least 8 feet long), the cost would be at least $3,500 2) My husband (bless him!) will not build me a kitchen island. My husband is a man of many talents but home improvement is not one of them. My husband can bench press over 300 pounds, work out 15 people at the same time and move a couch by himself but build an island he cannot.

So, what's a girl on a budget to do? She builds an island all by her girly self.

Here was the plan:

• I scheduled three days (one Friday off from work and all of my weekend) to complete the project
•  I bought two 36x24" and one 24x24" pre-made oak cabinets (pre-made translates into easier since I didn't have to order expensive custom cabinets and I didn't have to do any assembly) from Home Depot totaling $440 (Home Depot was having a 30% cabinetry sale that weekend, lucky me)
• Two 24x96" butcher block countertops from Ikea totalling $100 (great deal!). I originally wanted a granite countertop but due to cost of and time of fabrication (around $1200 with a three week turnaround), I opted for another material
• 6 cabinet panels totaling $36. These would be placed over the unfinished sides of the cabinetry.
• 1 gallon of black flat paint and 1 can of polyurethane around $40

Home Depot dropped off the pre-made cabinetry at 7am.

 

I admit I was freaked out and overwhelmed for around 15 minutes. These cabinets did not reassemble an island at all. I sucked it up and quickly got to work assembling the configuration I wanted and leveling the cabinets with shims. I bolted the cabinets together and then painted the cabinetry black.



By Saturday morning, I was finished joining the cabinets together and had also finished painting. I was ready to move onto the finishes. Using some leftover crown molding I found in the garage (thanks Dad!), I worked on the finishes for the cabinet. The crown molding would add unique detailing to the island but would also hide any gaps and imperfections in the assembly (such as gaps between the wood panels on the back of the island).



I then placed the countertops on the island. I chose an inexpensive butcher block style from Ikea. Because I wanted to have a breakfast bar overhang, I opted for 2 counters and joined them together. I finished the counter edge with some extra molding and used three coats of glossy polyurethane.

Three days and $600 later, I had a new kitchen island!



Disclaimer: My pug, Cans, and I are just posing for a picture. No pugs were harmed in the creation of this island.