Our New Island

Cory continues to amaze me over and over.  He is excellent with detailed work, but doesn't like to let me in on his secret.  This weekend he proved that he can make my visions come to life and do them in a very professional way.  Thank you honey!

Our island started out like this.  There was a large overhang on the end and left side which made our kitchen feel very cramped.  We were constantly asking each other to move so we could pass by.  After seven years I seriously wanted to rip out the island and just be done with it. 

But we use our island all the time.  Its the center of our home.  We cook, clean, serve food, do homework, well you get it.  We needed to keep the island, but improve the function.  So I started looking on houzz and came up with a couple inspirations. 

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I would love to paint our cabinets, but Cory really loves the stained wood look... so he wins for now.  The picture above with the stained island and white cabinets is one of my absolute favorite kitchens. 

Back to our kitchen project.  I pulled off the counter and got a feel for the space. 

Took some measurements. Then headed to Home Depot and Menards. It took me two trips, but I came home with more cabinets and a new butcher block counter.

 

We ended up returning one set of cabinets and adding the other to our island to make it longer.  We went with a three drawer cabinet because it was the easiest to work with and custom match to our current cabinets. 

Cory stained, measured, sanded, cut, sanded, finished with a protecting coat, and cut some more... It was a long weekend and he was happy when he was done. 

I believe our conversation before Father's Day went something like this...
Me: What would you like for Father's Day this year?
Cory: NO PROJECTS FOR ONE YEAR.
Cory: And then I'll ask for the same thing next year.
Me: hmmmmm with your talent and my ideas...

The finished project is beautiful.  We have 24" more of cabinet space, our counter is is narrow and long, we can all function in the kitchen without having to move around each other.  It turned out better than I imagined. 

Look at the detail.  Isn't it pretty?  How did we do for learning-as-we-go-DIYers?

Before:

After: