Kitchen Island

The idea for a kitchen island has been discussed in our home since we moved in. After months of looking through websites and in stores we decided to build our own when we came across photos and design plans at Ana-white.com.

We modified the design a bit by increasing the legs to 6x6 and decided against drawers and the notched joints. I had the opportunity to use a Kreg Jig in the wood shop at school, so I decided to purchase one after seeing how easy and strong it was to make joints.

Here is the redesigned plan drawn in Google Sketch Up:

We were fortunate to find an old wood-shop butcher block maple top that had some dirty words carved in and some major saw kerfs. A belt sander took most of the damage away and a new router refinished the edges with a straight cut and a 3/4 round over. The finish (Good Stuff) was easy and non-toxic.

The frame ended up being mahogany with douglas fir 6x6 legs (1-12' beam cut in 4). I had to dig through piles without a forklift at Diamond M Lumber:

Here is the unfinished assembly:

A trip to Lowes brought back 4 different cans of Cabot stain products: Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner, natural stain, Quick Dry Sanding Sealer, and Spar Varnish.

Here is the first coat of pre-stain (stays wet) then stain:

Here is the finished product:

http://bpistone.blogspot.com/2011/03/kitchen-island-finished.html