Kitchen Island - DIY in One Weekend

8881
3

by Mike on 15 February 2009

In my old apartment, cabinet and counter space were hard to come by. I came up with this plan for a portable, easy to construct, and relatively inexpensive kitchen island. It turned out better than I imagined, even though my construction technique was less than perfect.

Assembling the Island

The island is not much more than two stock base cabinets attached to a countertop. I dressed the sides of the cabinets with two 4x8 sheets of beadboard and three types of molding. The beadboard was cut into six sections - one for each unfinished side - and each section was attached with construction adhesive. The beadboard had a tendency to pull away from the cabinet as the adhesive set, so I used masking tape to secure the beadboard and removed it once everything was dry.

Since I had some beadboard left over, I decided to cut some panels for the cabinet doors. A few heavy books held the panels in place while the adhesive set. It's a nice touch and ties the piece together.

I cut the molding to size with a miter box and attached it to the cabinets with finishing nails and a small amount of construction adhesive. Once the adhesive was set, I gave the cabinets a light sanding, caulked the joints, and primed and painted the piece. The body of the cabinets is Benjamin Moore Saybrook Sage and the trim is a pure white. I chose a semi-gloss finish for both colors.

Countertop and Hardware

I purchased the countertop from Ikea. It's just a basic butcher block countertop attached to each cabinet with four screws. The base cabinets each came with four brackets for mounting the countertop, so installation was straightforward. I set the countertop in place and marked my holes from below, flipped the countertop and pre-drilled my holes, flipped the countertop once more (this time right-side-up), and screwed it in place. Since I rarely move the island, I figured eight screws would be enough to secure everything. It seems to have worked just fine.

The finishing touch was installing drawer pulls. I just pre-drilled the holes and screwed the hardware in place. The hardest part was deciding which style to go with.

Final Thoughts

While most of my mistakes don't bother me, there are a few things I would do differently should I tackle a project like this again...

Cut the molding with a compound miter saw. I own one now, but if I didn't I would rent one. Cutting molding with a miter box is no fun.
Purchase a deeper countertop. The one I have works fine, but I think it would look better if there were a few more inches of overhang on the front and back of the island.
Cut the paneling with a table saw. My circular saw got the job done, but a table saw would have made things a bit easier (thank God the molding hides the edges of the paneling I cut).
Skip the finishing nails. Construction adhesive alone would have secured the molding.

All in all, I'm really happy with how this project turned out. I may still add some sliding shelves to the inside of at least one cabinet and replace the cabinet hinges with ones that match my drawer pulls, but for now this project is finished.