Do You Want It Done Right, Or Do You Want It Done Tonight?
Duh.
Tonight please.
The kitchen island project has been droning on for 9 months now. Tomorrow is my oldest's graduation party. I'd loooveee, simply loooveee to have it in the house..... How much more do we have to do?
For you, included here are all sorts of pictures, brief captions, and observations. If it inspires you, awesome. If not, that's cool too.
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| Stained pallet wood, trimming the exterior of both cabinets to create a unified loo. |
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| The Backside. |
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| The front side. |
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| The side side...? wait, what? |
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| In love with my island's progress. Taking pictures like a 13 year old girl takes selfies. |
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| 'Dat Oak Trim. |
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| Perfection on the corners. Honestly, this just gets better and better, keep scrolling. |
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| Keep Going.... |
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| Stained and the interior given a second, third, fourth coat of flat black. |
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| Holy shit. It hit me all of a sudden.... what if the microwave doesn't fit? OMG I'd keel over. I ran in the house, grabbed it, ran out, tripped down the steps nearly killing myself, stuffed it in.... ahhhhhh PERFECTION. |
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| True Story. I went to our local re-use it store and found 1X2 cabinet facing in a big bin marked.... FREE... whhhhaatttt??? yep! So I snatched that right up! We ripped it in half, sanded the snot out of it, filled it, and it's pretty amazing. Just saying. |
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| Here is a better view of how well this was blending together (the freebie cabinet with the homemade one.) |
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| All I'm really seeing here is a stud. Wheewwww. |
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| More views of that trimmed out front. |
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| Love this picture. Really seeing it come together... but wait... there is more. |
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| An more. |
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| And more. |
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| I was dying to see what it would look like once it was all blended together. I grabbed an extra can of spray paint and went over everything. While I didn't want it grey it gave me a good idea that I was on the right track. |
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| My partner in crime loved the way the grain showed through the spray paint and I agree, but it won't be this project that I do this. |
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| Well. The counter top had been debated for nine months. I knew I wanted a solid surface. (as opposed to tile which I knew I could pull off really well but I needed a long counter to really work at with no grooves and grout lines.) I contemplated, and was really wanting a regular 'ole Joe Blow laminate counter top. Lowes and Homedepot had some spiffy ones. Some of them looked granite-like. But they all had the 3"-4" backsplash lip on the back> I called and inquired about custom ordering one to the tune of 2.5 times the cost! Ummmm no. So I had thought from the beginning of a butcher block, as well. I wanted to make one but honestly, was worn out from the last nine months of this project. I went to Ikea. I love Ikea. And they had just the ticket for $129. Can't beat it. |
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| I laid it out in the kitchen across the back of two kitchen chairs. Geeezzzz it was huge. I was hoping and praying when the beast came in, it was everything I'd envisioned. |
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| The island, still outside, testing for how bad it was. Why.... it wasn't bad at all! |
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| Painted. All black, just how I'd thought. |
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| I'd used some flat black paint and some spray paint depending. There are a lot of coats on this bugger. I wanted it to withstand years of wiping. |
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| The trim on each corner was also pained black. Pallets left stained cherry..... Hey that's a nice looking 1983 Kawasaki GPZ 550 in the background.... good times! |
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| See how the sun is gleaming off to the right? That's how my heart was feeling! |
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| Some cartwheels. |
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| Woooowwwwww. |
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| I started sanding these doors in anticipation of also painting them, but would be persuaded later to reconsider. |
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| Would all my baking "gear" fit inside? |
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| Drilled hole to add electrical box. |
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| Lucky for me, my better half is an electrician. And a damn fine one. He added a breaker (I think that's right?) in our box inside and wired this bad boy right up. The sockets have little LED night lights that are light sensitive (they start glowing after dark) super, super cool. He WANTED to do a cartwheel. But he has self-restraint. |
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| Soooo.... remember how the base has place for "drawers?" After much back and forth and debate and discussion and contemplation and... well... it was decided that I would create "doors" on hinges with magnetic catches and instead of those cubbies being doors they would be just what they were - cubbies for casserole dishes and the like. So cut to length, stained, and routered... this is what I was looking at. |
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| Chrome feet added. Wanted to do everything I could to kind of marry new with old, modern with traditional. LOVE these chrome feet. I bought them at Ikea. They were made to go onto a TV base and came with machined screws. My BFF manufactured some wood screws and nuts to hold them on.. |
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| I know..... |
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| Here's the door hinged open. |
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| Poor picture quality, but the door's with the brushed nickel knobs on. I use these probably every other day. And while it's not ideal to keep my casserole dishes inches from the floor, considering my space allotment otherwise, this was a great alternative! Works wonderfully and I'm so happy! |
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| Kitchen Island In 'Da House....... WHEWWWWWWWWWWW woot woot! |
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| Doors added and I left them natural to tie in the pallets. |
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| Hooks added under the counter top overhand to hold tea towels. |
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| We are still level baby. |
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| Added these awesome iron corbials I have had for years and years and somehow have managed to hold onto. |
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| Spice drawer front added. This is taped from the inside as it was just decided that the best thing to do would be to make that a separate mini-project. |
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| In the house. Filled. Dream to reality. Nine months in the making. Exactly what I'd envisioned and dreamed. |
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| Done. |
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| And done. |
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| The only thing left to do was decide on what to do on the top. It's almost a separate blog, but ultimate I used Formby's Tung Oil Finish, low gloss. I wasn't planning on cutting food on my gorgeous counter top so I wasn't worried about "food grade" oil. I stained the entire top with cherry minwax first and then used Formby's overtop. I put on 3 coats with a day of drying in between. It's holding up great, wipes up easily, and I'm very happy several months into use, with it's overall appearance and stamina. |
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| The money shot. |
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And what started it all? A microwave on the counter top with no extra
space and hanging off the end.... |
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And now the microwave is housed
beautifully, in a custom made kitchen
island that I designed and built myself with
the ever-ready help of my best friend and
partner in crime. |
