Kitchen Makeover for Sis part Two- The Ginormous Island

Hope you all are having a good weekend. Me, I'm relaxing today because I spent the last 3 days working on my Sister's kitchen remodel. My Mom is here visiting and so I spent a few days with both of them working. Sorry Mom not much of a vacation.

I thought I was kidding on the last post when I said steps 2-5000 coming next. Seriously, remodeling a kitchen takes FOR-EVA. I cannot believe we are still not done.

But check out this before and almost after.

The Ginormous Island. This thing is big. 63"wide x 40" deep. I am very happy with how it turned out. Here are some different views of it.

front- oopsy need to install more hardware

side view- note: sanding dust

shows up when flash is used

rear view

My initial plan for the island was to build the cabinets myself. Thank God I happened to be driving by the Habitat Restore one day and they had cabinets outside with a sign that said FREE. As you can imagine I squealed into a parking space and ran to them. There were 2 cabinets that would work.

This one which is 15"w x 24"deep x 30" tall.

& this one that is 33"w x 24"d x 30" tall. I wanted a 30" cabinet but IT WAS FREE so I figured I could work with it. They both are made from 3/4" particle board with white melamine inside.

The large one was a sink front cabinet so I had to cut a hole to install a drawer and modify it to make it fit the doors.

OMG I forgot to tell you about the doors. I knew I couldn't make nice enough doors for the cabinet so I went looking at the Habitat Restore in Olympia. I found 3 sets of doors, in the box, brand new, for $12 each set. I am telling the truth I swear. Each set included two paneled doors with a one drawer front and all the hinges. They fit 30" cabinets. Did I mention they are Oak. Are you kidding me you cant even buy the fancy hinges for $12 at the hardware store. I can hardly stand it.

So with my free cabinets and awesome deal on doors I only had to make one cabinet. I used 3/4" plywood to make the box.

I built a regular drawer and a drawer for the bottom so she can get to stuff in the back. I got the sturdy drawer glides at the Restore too.

Here you can see in this next pic how I placed the cabinets together. I had to make a base for the free cabinets since they were only 30" tall. After we replaced the floor, thanks to the help from my big brother, we figured out the exact placement and I screwed everything together.

free cabinets are on left, mines on right

We wrapped the island with bead board which I had cut at Home Depot. I had to push for them to cut it because he told me their saw would not make a clean cut. I said "just try it I promise I will buy it no matter what". He did and it cut clean so I won ;) I mention that because I have noticed that most of the time they do say that and I have to push, but it always cuts just fine. (By the way I hate conflict so that exchange made me break out in hives)

I used 1x4 MDF for the base trim. In the front where I had to modify the free cabinet I used a piece of fluted trim to hide all that and it ties in with the trim on the pantry.

Last thing is the counter top for the island. We ended up using laminated pine boards. The packaging says they are for building furniture. They are strips of pine laminated together to make wider straight boards. It reminds me of butcher block. I had wanted to find one of those inexpensive farmhouse tables with the pine tops but then the island turned out Ginormous and so we had to re-assess. I am not sure how this will hold up but we shall see. We stained the top and my sister is going to put the clear finish on it. My Hubby and Brother came over and helped install the counter and the Hubby routered the edge to make it look more custom. I haven't tackle the router yet. I want to get a small one, the big one scares me. I plan to cut strips of pine and glue them to the underside to make the counter look more beefy.

OK here's a recap of what we have done so far:

-removed the curve from counter and added a pantry cabinet

-replaced peninsula with island

-replaced flooring

-made a display shelf above sink

-added a cabinet next to dishwasher

-installed light over island and sink

What we still have to do:

-install transition piece between carpet and floor

-paint cabinets lighter cream color

-paint wall accent color

-trim under island to "beef up counter"

-new laminate counter top for sink counter

-finish trimming out shelf over sink

Eventually she plans to purchase a new oven and put it where the corner cabinets and cook top are. Then where the wall oven is now we will build a cabinet for the microwave and maybe a drawer.

Still 2000 more steps to go..... But it is looking good and my sister is happy, which makes it all worth it!