Oak Kitchen Island

My wife has always wanted a kitchen island. We searched everywhere for plan but couldn’t find anything exactly like what we wanted. All islands seem to be the small portable ones you wheel around or the massive beasties that have built in stove and sink. We wanted something large enough we could all sit at for a meal and would serve as additional counter and cabinet space, yet it had to be free standing. Not finding any plans that were close to what we wanted, I designed my own. This is the result.

The cabinet itself is 24×48 and counter top is 36×60. The 36” high top overhangs on the back (12”) and sides (9”) to serve as an eating area when matched up with conventional bar stools. The drawers utilize self closing 100 lb full extension sliders. The rail and stile cabinet doors are installed using Blum (European Style) hinges because I needed the adjustability to ensure correct positioning and even gaps on the inset doors. This was my first experience using this type of hinge and I quite like it. The oak braces shown under the 12” back overhang are merely for decoration. The top is 1.5” thick and needs no support. It was a fun project for both of us. The finish is several coats of Natural Danish Oil.

I should add that this was a joint project. My wife has become quite interested in woodworking and we have teamed up on a few projects recently. We decided to tackle this project side by side, and both enjoyed the experience. I appreciated her artistic point of view, as with everything else we compliment each others abilities quite well and a lot of the success of this project was due to that teamwork. There were times when things went wrong or didn’t work the way I wanted them to. My initial reaction was to throw the piece away and do it again to stick with my original design. Shari on the other hand would look at ways to utilize the (modification) and modify the design to accommodate the change in a new way I hadn’t previously considered. In the end, all these modifications she suggested, are now some of the features I am most pleased with. It will be the first of many that we will work on together.

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