Kitchen Island Project #1: First Steps Carcase Construction

We’ve started a new kitchen island project. This will be interesting in many ways but for one, my wife and I are doing it together. She has recently developed an interest in learning woodworking and wants to try building the island with me.

I don’t have any formal plans for this project. I searched the internet for free or paid plans but there isn’t much for kitchen islands of this size and nothing similar to what we wanted. I drafted up the basic cabinetry with all the measurements and cut plans myself, but there will be a fair amount of design-as-we-go in this project.

First stage is complete with the carcase construction done. It’s made from 3/4” double face oak ply. I used pocket hole joinery for all the assembly and am totally sold on it for cabinet construction where the pocket holes can be hidden. It makes things so much easier because you don’t need a million clamps for the glue up. Everything was dead square.

We then cut dados and panels for the dust frame and vertical cabinet dividers. Did some redesign along the way. We were going to have an open bookcase for cook books in the middle but then realized the amount of wasted space in behind the cookbooks. That was when we decided to put a narrow cabinet in the middle specifically for cookie sheets, trays and all those annoying large flat objects that normally bang around in the drawer below the stove. Had I been thinking better, I would have kept the bookcase part open in the back so you could store books on both sides. However this will work well we like the idea of having a vertical cabinet for those trays.

The top will be much larger than the sub top you see here. The actual top will have a 12” overhang on the back of the cabinet to serve as an eating bar and also overhangs 8” on either side. There will be turned legs and I will be turning the door knobs myself on the lathe. The front will have a solid oak face frame with inset doors. At least thats the plan, lets see what it looks like when I’m done.

-- Jim Sollows --- Langley BC Canada --- www.sollows.ca