MY KITCHEN ISLAND–REVAMPED

allie • Feb 06, 2016

I have realized that every time I post a picture of my kitchen island, people want to know where I purchased it from.  And although I did purchase it from a big box store, I always have a hard time wanting to tag it because I did so many changes to it that you wouldn’t even recognize it.  And I did write one blog post on what I did to it, but again I realized I wasn’t all that thourough in explaining it step by step, so I thought I would go into a little more detail.  First of all though, if you want to see the original post and the link to where the original island can be purchased, you can find that here.

So the original island is from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and is made by Real Simple.  It looked like this when I purchased it..

I picked this island because of both look and functionality. I liked that it had a lot of storage, was larger than my current island, and only had a price tag of $300, and with an additional 20% off it came to under $250, a great price when I had been looking around.

The things I did not like about the island were:

*  the casters (they looked cheap)

*  the blonde butcher block (it looked unfinished and too light)

*  the lack of character

* the modern pulls

All of this was easily changeable though, in my mind:)  So I’ll start with the casters.  I took them off and added on some small bun feet that I actually had from an ottoman.  You can find bun feet literally at any home improvement store though, and they are usually around $7-$15/piece.  I was happy I had some that I could re-use so it kept the cost low:)

They just gave it more of a classic look, rather than a cheap silver caster kind of look:) I honestly have forgotten how I attached them, but I think I used furniture feet hardware also located at a home improvement store. I would flip the thing over to look, but truth be told that seems like too much work right now at 36 weeks preggers:) I know they are screwed in though, and there is hardware for that!

Next, I wanted to add character.  If you look at the stock photo, you will realize they had edging pieces on the corners and a piece that went down the back, that was raised from the existing paneling.  This made it super easy to glue and nail on some of my handy dandy 1/4″ luann plywood that I use on all of my planking projects.  All I had to do was cut it to size and stick it in.  I had a lot of left over pieces, so I was able to reuse what I had and complete that part in about 10 minutes!

And easy 4 1/2 pieces of plywood planks and this side was done.

The middle vertical piece is the piece I was talking about, the piece that was already there. I just had to patch in the strips to the right and left of it.

I did end up painting the whole cabinet in my Benjamin Moore Simply White color so the planks would match, and the color it orginally came was a little creamy and really shiny, so I do think that helped to make it look more custom.

The character was getting there. I didn’t love how the side of the island hung down, and it looked to narrow in my kitchen down anyway, so I decided to use these corbels from Menards that you can find in their shelving section for I believe $3-$4 a piece…I can’t remember, to permanently hold the top up.

I screwed them right in. You can see that there is a tiny 1/4″ gap between the counter and the top of the corbel at the 90 degree angle because of how the countertop sits, but that didn’t bug me. The kids lean on this all the time and we haven’t had any issues with it moving yet!

The last thing to do was to stain the butcher block a color that suited my house more and add hardware that as well, was more “farm house” look.

I used Minwax special walnut, mixed about 50/50 with Minwax classic gray to get the right color.  It is not as dark as my last island top, and I liked that since this was a bigger space..

I also stenciled my circa back on, just for a unique touch. I didn’t seal the top of the island with anything, and it has held up great. I used to be afraid to cut on it, until my friend came over and started chopping away, and I realized how practical it is;) And the marks on the top only add more lived in worn look anyway, which I really like!

And the last thing, the new hardware..

These are the same pulls I used on my buffet in the dining room from Pottery barn. They were $10/each, but since I only needed 2, it wasn’t bad. I filled the nail holes on the doors from where the vertical bar was and added cheap knobs from Menards. I also added this metal towel bar which proved to be the perfect length, from Ikea.

and I believe it was only a few dollars as well! Score:) The huge wooden one just wasn’t cutting it for me.

So that’s the story of my kitchen island.  Hopefully that helped clear a few things up!  Here’s the before…

and the after…

Much better…

By Allie Lundeen 21 Mar, 2024
The favorite links of the week
By Allie Lundeen 19 Mar, 2024
30 Day Prayer Challenge - Kid's Version Now Available
By Allie Lundeen 14 Mar, 2024
Favorite Links of the Week
By Allie Lundeen 29 Feb, 2024
Favorite Links of the week
By Allie Lundeen 24 Feb, 2024
Favorite Links of the Week
By Allie Lundeen 16 Feb, 2024
Favorite Links of the week
More Posts
Share by: