Building A Kitchen Island
It is possible to build a kitchen island. You can make your own. Read the articles below to find out how simple it is to go through the steps from planning, design and construction. If you would rather just install the kitchen island without going through the process of designing it, you can also buy a kitchen island kit. Either way, if you are planning on building a kitchen island or purchasing a premade kit installing one will transform your kitchen.
While building a kitchen island is not a task for the inexperienced, good planning and careful measurements can lead to a piece of kitchen furniture that will give pleasure, and good use, for many years. Best of all, you can assemble smaller, pre-built “stock” cabinets, and combine them into a unique item that perfectly fits your needs.
Measure everything, carefully
First, how much room do you have for your island? Take a roll of masking tape, and then open all the cabinet doors, dishwasher, refrigerator, oven door – anything that opens into the kitchen floor area. Mark the outside edge – the part that sticks out the farthest – on the floor in front of each item. (If you’re not good at lining things up by eye, use a washer or other small, heavy item on a piece of string, Hold it by the string on the outside edge, and mark where it touches the floor). Now, use the tape to connect all the smaller pieces of tape. That tells you how much working area you have for your island.
Careful planning is the key
Now, decide what is going to be in your island. Do you want a sink or stovetop? Then plan on a deeper countertop; perhaps 48-inch instead of the standard 36-inch. Want to store a lot of pans and cookie sheets? Plan on open shelving for part of your island; standard base cabinets are usually 24-inch at their deepest.
You can mix base (designed to sit on the floor) with wall (hanging) cabinets for different uses, but must remember that wall cabinets are usually 10-inches in depth, and only 30-inches tall. This allows you to have doors on both sides of your islands (a 36-inch countertop will cover one base, and one wall cabinet, with just enough for the overhang.), but you must add a riser to the wall cabinet, to make the heights match. If you don’t need the extra doors, the extra 12 inches of space allows for knees under your countertop, and you can use it for seating. Make it fit your needs.
Although plumbing is beyond the scope of this article, remember that any cabinet that a sink is mounted over, is effectively useless for many types of storage.
Make your cardboard model
Once you’ve decided on your dimensions to build your kitchen island, make a cardboard model of the space it will take on the floor, lay it down, and measure again. Make sure that if you have doors, they can still open when your existing doors are open (dishwashers are famous for interfering with islands). Make sure you don’t have to “squeeze past” any corners of the island; standard allowance is three feet. Less may mean you bump into it, when your hands are full. Mark the corners on the floor with tape, to make it easier to line up your cabinets, when you have them.
Check your parts
Once you have all your island parts, line them up on the floor, matching them to your tape marks. Then, check once again to make sure all the doors can open, and you can move around the island. Check the tops of all the cabinets; the tops have to all be even, to place your countertop. You might find it necessary to shim the bottoms here and there, to compensate for “waves” in the floor. This is normal, and doesn’t indicate a defect in your cabinets.
Tips for building and assembly
- When screwing the cabinets together, remember they need to be connected both front and back.
- When putting screws in the front frame (the part where the doors screw on, and the drawers slide in), always use pilot holes – it keeps the wood from splitting. Never just “go at it”, even cheaper cabinets use hardwoods for framing.
- Countersink all screws connecting the cabinets, so the heads are even with, or below, the surface. This prevents them from interfering with doors and drawers.
- Keep checking to make sure things stay lined up, as you assemble. It’s easy to wind up with a “ski ramp” across the tops of the cabinets. Also, as you connect each piece, make sure all doors and drawers open and close properly. It’s way easier to fix minor problems BEFORE you mount the countertop.
- Mount all hooks, racks, towel dispensers, etc. before you mount the countertop… but also remember the countertop is going to be there. Don’t forget that inch-and-a-half overhang, or you’ll have to move them all down.
- Once you build a kitchen island, you can use it with pride and satisfaction; it’s a level many homeowners never attempt. With care and planning, you can be one of the few.
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