Kitchen Island Transformation

Kitchen islands are a great addition to any kitchen area. We put this one together to allow for extra seating and kitchen workspace. It's not too difficult to create a DIY kitchen island with a little know-how and some cost-effective resources.

We're finally done with our island. It was definitely a labor of love...but so worth it. I want to start by saying that we were inspired to do this after seeing Heather's Island over at At the Picket Fence. She gave a fabulous tutorial...so good that I carried the photos of it on my phone around Lowe's to duplicate her hardware and such. Our end result is a bit different...but we couldn't have done the nitty gritty parts without Heather's tutorial.

Here's our version:

Three sides of the island are covered in beadboard wallpaper. 

We also added this bar to the back of the island for towels.

I bought two saddle-style bar stools off of Craigslist to use at each end...

my boys love having breakfasts here!

We covered the back toe-kick with baseboard moulding since I only stand on the other side when using the island. {I hated that back toe-kick...it was a dirt trap}. We added little feet in the front toe kick, but kept it fully functional by not enclosing it.

Another before shot...this is after we had resurfaced the courtertops. There wasn't nearly enough workspace for me on the previous top. This is the main place I prep, make lunches, breakfasts and Bento boxes. I also like to serve from this area when hosting others for a meal. I use it constantly and needed more space.

We gained over two extra feet of countertop space!

And the kids can't get enough of sitting at it!

The whole thing started with a quick overnight trip up to Dallas. I somehow ended up at Ikea (imagine that). Our local Ikea in Round Rock hadn't had their butcher block countertops for ages, so I thought I'd check the Dallas {Frisco} store. While they, too, were out of butcher block, I was informed that it would probably be months before they got more in and some of their line had been discontinued. I made the decision to scrap butcher block and look for something else to use for the island I had been envisioning. This has a wood-look top and stainless metal sides all around...really liked it. 

And so, on this quick jaunt to visit a couple of friends, I came home with a 73" countertop. 

And the project began...

We had thought we could use whatever was holding the previous countertop in place to hold the new one in place. We found out it was held on by adhesive, so that plan went out the window.

After trimming the countertop down a bit {Ikea provides extra edges just for this}, we attached it. We trimmed it right there in the kitchen {we tend to live a bit on the wild & dusty side}.

We attached the new countertop with "L" brackets in four places. 

We took a bit of a different take on the legs. Actual legs for these type of projects were over $40 at our Lowe's. We found these outdoor decking posts for $12 {and some change}, also at Lowe's. They are a treated wood, so we knew we'd have to sand, prime a lot and paint well. But this was fine with us. 

We only used the mid-sections. The little board on top was a template we made to cut them all the same length. We did reuse the little area above the ball finials...can you guess where?

While we worried about their size, they easily fit in the miter saw and it cut them beautifully. This was definitely a two-person cutting job because of the size and weight of the legs. I held the back part because of the kick-back when the blade released....didn't want the leg flying across the garage.

If you don't have a compound-miter saw, you can inexpensively rent one from Lowe's or Home Depot {that's what Heather did for her island and it turned out beautifully}.

We slid them in place for a dry fit.

We attached the legs underneath with "L brackets" and "triangle brackets"...another Heather inspiration. Later we ended up adding an extra "L bracket" about an inch below that "triangle bracket" to reinforce it. I have no idea why I'm putting bracket names in quotes...it seems like the proper thing to do, no? They are attached to an apron created out of 1x4 boards, cut to size. I won't re-invent the wheel by explaining the process of the apron...Heather did a fabulous explanation of the apron in her post.

This is a shot without the apron...but it shows the mouldings that needed to be removed to proceed with the next step. We pulled the Quarter-Round (also sometimes referred to as "Corner Round", but since there's also such thing as "Half-Round", I feel the need to call it Quarter Round...it is a quarter of a circle...that's how I see it). Please ignore the filthiness of the inside of the cupboard...that is a product of sawing the countertop in the kitchen....and oh, about five years of use.

Now, the FUN begins! We used beadboard wallpaper versus actual beadboard. And it was EASY to work with and use. LOVE it and am planning on using it everywhere now. This is available at Lowe's and is about $24 for a roll this size. We barely used any of it for all three sides of the island.

We prepped by filling in the holes from where the previous corner moulding had been stapled into place (great job, Builder Bob). It was a pain to remove...again with the crowbar. It ripped off half of the actual wood, which explains the excess of DryLock (putty/filler) used here to fill.

The wallpaper is pre-pasted {niiiiice}. You cut it to your shape, wet it, fold it in half to activate for five minutes and apply it. Then smooth it with the tool. Where we matched up seams, we used more DryLock to fill the imperfections. It went on like buttah, I tell ya.

After the wallpaper dried, we put on the baseboard moulding. We used such a wide piece since we covered up that toe-kick. We used finishing nails, sunk the nails and DryLocked (puttied) over them for a seamless finish.

We also put the feet in...attaching from inside the cabinet. See where they came from? They're the decorative part above the finial ball on the posts for the legs. As grandpa would say, "waste not, want not." Amen, gramps.

The entire "foot" was too big, so we cut it in half and just used the two halves. We have three more of these {so six total when cut} and plan to use them when we give the main kitchen cabinets a make-over this summer.

We bought the cheap foam-board corner moulding which meant it couldn't be cut with power tools...it would rip to shreds. So I notched and scored and cut until we got the shape/size we needed. This took forever, but we got there.

In the words of DJ Lance Rock, "a-break it down"...

After all moulding was attached, I used both DryLock and Paintable Caulk to fill every last crevice. This makes a world of difference in the end result so be sure to take the time to do it.

Ahhh....sanding. Seems so simple, right? Well, the fact that we're dealing with outdoor, treated decking that emits the chemicals used to treat it when sanded takes this to a whole new level. This is me taking a couple of days off my life and using the Dremel to sand without a mask. Tsk, tsk. This is a big no-no. Always wear a mask when sanding treated wood.

The wood from the decking was really rough. It took both of us a couple of hours to sand the whole thing. But it was well worth it.

And I'm totally kicking myself for not listening to my husband when he suggested putting the little feet on last to make painting easier. Since I'm the painter, I didn't think it would be a big deal. That was until I was belly-to-tile with a 1/4" brush getting into all the darn detail of those feet. This was sooo annoying.

It got two coats of primer. And for a fleeting second, it made me think I should paint it white. But, since we are planning to paint the actual kitchen cabinets white, I wanted the island to contrast and be its own color.

You may remember this can of "Oops Paint" from my Mirror2Chalkboard post. It's like the never-ending loaves and fish supply...this can never runs out. I adore the color and am so happy to be the one who stumbled upon its goodness. There's still plenty to paint my new-to-me piano with. SAY WHAT!?! I didn't tell you I got a piano? Oh, yes. It will be aqua blue, too.

I'm also loving the Ikea towel bar that we installed on the back. This piece is really meant to hold tools and cute galvanized Ikea buckets filled with awesome-sauce. But, I saw it a bit differently. And it works for me this way. It does, however, annoy me that the five-year-old slides the hooks back and forth on the bar on a minute-ly basis. Good times.

We also added the birdcage knobs and the vintage pulls.

I am in LOVE with this thing. And I'm not one bit shy/reserved about it {like I probably should be}. I just can't contain the joy it brought me & my kitchen! It's a pleasure to work on! One more thing done in the ongoing kitchen update...28 more to go.