Well HELLO! Oh happy day, the kitchen island is done! I busted my butt yesterday painting for hours to get it finished up so I could show you this week. It’s so freaking awesome, I love it! Love it love it love it.
I’m always proud of what I create in our house but this one may be one of my favorites. I keep looking at it thinking, I DID THAT. And it wasn’t crazy expensive either. It’s a wonderful feeling.
If you remember, last year during the family room renovation we pulled up the island to patch the floors. I wanted to move it away from the cabinets a little bit and we had to fix the floors to do that. They had to tear it apart to take it out of the kitchen:
And my “art” project was created. ;) The squiggles are just old glue from past island projects. If you’ve followed along over the years you know this little island has undergone a LOT of redos. This is the last one. I’m not touching it again. Ever.
I used the original island and built off of it – first by making a wine rack out of scrap wood:
I’m sure at this point some of you were like, uhhhh…OK…
You need to TRUST! :)
Next came the cabinet at the end of the island that will house a microwave eventually:
I just built a basic box with screws and wood.
It sat like this for a while – I hosted a party, had friends over…all with the interesting island on display. The best part of it so far was the new size and the butcher block countertop – I LOVE having a larger island. It is fantastic my friends. I added about two and half feet to it in total.
Next up came the supports I built on the side:
I know some of you have mentioned that the chairs are close together – there’s actually five inches between them and it’s plenty for us. I didn’t want to make the island any bigger – that space at the end where the table used to be has grown on us and we love having it open now. (Before it felt massive, so funny.)
Also, in the 11 years we’ve lived in this house we’ve never had two grown adults sit down at the island next to each other anyway (when it was just a two seater). When we have parties one person sits, one leans, and our last party I actually pulled one of the seats off to the side by the new cabinet and sat there so I could talk to people. So the spacing works fine for us – but if you try this you will have to figure out what works best for you!
I planked the whole thing with the same cheap underlayment I used on the fireplace in the family room. And to tie to two areas together even more I painted it the same color – Peppercorn by Sherwin Williams. It ties the whole space together beautifully!:
I’ll take you on a tour of my island. ;) The cabinets were part of the old island, obviously. Everything past that is new. The wine rack is seriously awesome and I need to go buy some more wine to fill it up. (I may have celebrated with a glass last night.)
The new cabinet at the end will have a shelf eventually – I won’t install that until we get the microwave that will go in here. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the bottom shelf – for now it holds cookbooks and I love that we have extra storage!:
I still need to pick up a cover for the outlet, but otherwise the part is done for now. I used plywood for this cabinet since it is cheaper -- you can see the grain of the wood but eventually most of it will be covered with the microwave:
Yes, our Valentine hearts are still up. ;)
I told you more about the stools and how I cut them down here. I was originally going to keep the original color of our island, a lighter blue/gray, but the stools looked awful with it. So I went with the darker and I love it!:
All of those cabinets will be built up to the ceiling and will be painted eventually. In the full light like this the Peppercorn color goes a little blue in pics but in person it’s more gray. There is a definite blue undertone though.
I’ve been trying to figure out a good accent color to use in the kitchen -- I realized in the family room and our bedroom (where I have a wall painted the same color) that I love green with it. So green it will be…with some blue mixed in – I’m loving blue against all the white on the new window seat:
The plan is to take down those cabinets (the microwave will be replaced with a hood) and do shelving in that spot. I think this view will be pretty incredible when that’s done:
I have another idea for that wall that came into my head the other day. I’ll have to see if it will work. That’s like phase six out of ten phases of this kitchen, so it will be awhile. :)
But for now we are enjoying the first two phases that have come together better than I could have dreamed – the window seat and the island:
The new larger island makes me want to cook and bake all the time! I may have to make some brownies to celebrate. It’s so wonderful and turned out even better than I could have hoped.
I found this super old picture and had to share, just because it’s fun to see the changes over the years:
Want to know more?
See all the details of this island redo here.
The completed island with microwave is here.
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