A few of you have been asking for more details regarding the kitchen island construction as well as the island countertop. Today we’ll cover the cabinet choices that we made and how we DIYed the butcher block.
First up, the island base. We used Ikea’s online kitchen planner to plan out every inch of our kitchen. Whether you’re going with an Ikea or not, I would highly recommend giving this program a shot. If you have your kitchen dimension you can get a great visual of all the possible layouts. We chose to do a 6′ x 3′ island base with approx. 6′x4′ countertop (12 inch overhang for the counter-height seating). Here’s the top-view using the kitchen planner:
1 – 30″ base cabinet with 2+2 drawers. Our microwave lives in this cabinet, but the 30″ cabinet would work just as well on it’s own.
2 – 18″ base cabinet with 3 drawers
3 – This a 24″ opening with no cabinet, just a simple panel running along the entire side of the island to enclose it. We have our beverage cooler here, but a basic 24″ base cabinet would work as well.
4 & 5 – 26″ wall cabinet with 2 doors. Because theses two cabinets are only 12″ deep we had to use wall cabinets. The only major difference here was the lack of legs for support. We screwed the legs in manually, however a separate base can be built instead.
And if anyone is confused with how the cabinets are working together, individual front views:
Now, moving on to the butcher block countertop. As mentioned in the source list we purchased two separate pieces of butcher block from Lumber Liquidators, each 25″ x 8′. We could have opted to purchase a single slab (not offered at Lumber Liquidators) but it would have cost us several thousands of dollars more than the $518 we spent.
After cutting them to size at 25″ x 6’2″ (make sure you have a sharp blade, the butcher block is very dense) we drilled pilot holes on an angle from beneath the countertop with a 3/16 inch counter-sink bit. To combine the two pieces we used several 3-inch wood screws to secure. This process gave an extremely tight fit for a nearly seamless countertop.
And at a distance, the seam is nearly invisible..
We then finished with a few coats of Minwax’s Dark Walnut and a water-based polycrylic (note: not food safe).
If I’ve left any major details out, be sure to let me know in the comments! I’d be happy to clear up any remaining questions 
Hi! I'm Jessie, a wife, mother of two girls, and an interior design fanatic. My husband Rick and I just purchased our second home, a 1950's ranch in dire need of some TLC, in our hometown of Cincinnati, OH. To find out more, click 
This looks fantastic! And just what I needed to see today…our kitchen project is slowly limping along and we’re just about the put in the island. Yay! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Chris!
Kitchen remodels always take the longest but have the greatest outcomes! It seemed like ours was taking forever too!
Stay positive
Jessie
oh wow so nice to see like thinking! we revamped our kitchen last year & did something very similar with our island. i love how you detailed the individual pieces that went into it! our customization included the upper cabinets as well (so the island would not be 48″ wide – wide is not necessarily better!). and we used uppers that had drawers at the bottom as well for our dog feeding station – http://blondemafia.blogspot.com/2011/08/dinner-is-served.html. nice to see we’re on the same track! love your countertop as well. nicely done all the way around.
Thanks for sharing Denise! Love love love that integrated dog bowl. Such a great idea!
Jessie
Gorgeous island! I did the same thing by planning it out on Ikea. Mine is a whole lot simpler than yours (love the micro in yours, by the way – I wish I did that) and I have this linked to my kitchen islands post as well today!
How did you customize the 30″ cabinet to make the microwave fit? Did you just not install some drawers? Did it fit perfectly in there? Did you have to add extra support to hold the microwave up? Nice island.
Soljah111,
We didn’t have to do much customizing to the microwave cabinet. We didn’t install the top two drawers and the microwave simply sits on the shelf and fit perfectly with the lowest drawer. Hope this helps
Jessie
The kitchen looks great! How is your butcher block holding up? We are trying to decide between using a polycrylic or a polyurethane to seal ours, as we do not need it to be food safe either. Thanks!
Thanks, Leslie! The butcher block is holding up great. Still looks brand new
hope that helps!
xo,
Jessie
Hey! Similar question for you. Why did you go with the water-based? Anything bad about going with the oil, considering we’ll probably want to make pasta on it every once in a while, or play with playdoh (that sometimes gets eaten), or what have you.
We went with a water based because it has less sheen. We didn’t want anything glossy and the water based dries with more of a satin finish, where as an oil dries as a gloss. Hope that helps!
xo,
Jessie