DIY Kitchen Island, Take I

Last Friday I was thinking about what I would do over the weekend.

Clean the house? Organize my garage? Sleep?

Nah.

I decided to finally build myself a kitchen island like I’ve been talking about for… well, awhile. (Like when I found inspiration photos/designs here, or when I first found out about Knock-Off-Wood last year!)

But first I needed a design.

Enter Ana White! I built my daybed based on her Simple Daybed plans last year (see part one, part two, and part three) back when her site was still “Knock-Off-Wood.”

I downloaded Google Sketch-Up (which is FREE!) and then spent a few hours Saturday morning/afternoon to modify her kitchen island plans to meet my needs and to fit within the dimensions of my kitchen.

It was frustrating… then fun… and then I got sucked in and before I knew it, four hours had gone by (at least) but I came out at the end with this:

I didn’t draw in the two drawers, figuring I would measure the actual openings to figure out how big they needed to be. The drawer-side will face my kitchen sink, with the overhang/bar in back facing the rest of the room. The idea is that I can put a stool or two there for extra seating, or to have my oatmeal and tea in the morning!

The original plans called for 2 shelves but I only wanted 1 with the thinking that 2 would make it more “solid” than what I wanted. I want it to be more “airy”.

The shelf is low enough under the drawers to hold my cookbooks (I measured my Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook to make sure!) and I added in the side rail to keep the books from falling over.

I convinced my mom to take me to Lowe’s to get my lumber that afternoon. About $40 later (it would have been a bit more but I had leftover wood from my daybed) I had what I needed to get the building process started…

That is… after some sweet-talking my dad and a good night’s sleep.

I’m not allowed to use the power cutting tools without adult supervision.