My Very Own Island

I have my very own island. I am the boss of the island too. I love my island.

So it's not an island like you think; with palm trees and the rolling waves.... it's in my kitchen!

This has been a long process. We started about the time we moved in; so about the end of July.

We priced islands with cabinet makers and the prices were pretty high, just for the cabinets and not including the countertop (around $3000 just for the island cabinets). We ended up buying unstained cabinets from Home Depot (for about $580) that we stained ourselves. The other thing too was that every cabinet maker we talked to tried to talk me out of what I wanted. Grrr! This way I got what I wanted and paid oodles less. We also left the existing cabinets.

See the fridge where it is in the picture above? Yes, it's sitting in the hallway at the moment. We moved it there while we were setting up and moving cabinets around finding a configuration we liked. The fridge originally sat at the wall behind Neil, next to that baker's rack. Can we say awkward positioning?!? Not even close to the counters, sink or stove; AND it makes the whole fung-shway of the kitchen off because it limits what else you can do in your kitchen. Awkward. We decided to take the cabinet out that is next to the stove and put the fridge there enabling us to fit a large island in.
This picture is probably a month after the first picture. I had floating/roaming cabinets in the middle of my kitchen for probably a month. Neil had a very very busy summer. This is Neil drilling into the tile floor! The laundry is right underneath with an exposed ceiling making it easy for Neil to wire in electrical for the island. He's so smart! I hadn't even thought of that.

Here is the island attached and ready for countertops. This was Labor Day. And you can see the fridge has been moved to it's new home. Dramatically improved the flow of the kitchen. Our existing cabinets are a white-washed oak, but it isn't a traditional white-wash; we couldn't find anything out there that matched. We tried some other dark and light wood colors and didn't like any of the combinations so we went with black.

I finally got my new countertops while we were on our trip in Washington DC. We got granite, which we were not planning on but it has come down so much in price it made more sense to do granite. We also did the bathroom counter to match too.



Drumroll.....




The pictures don't really do it justice. This island makes the kitchen feel so much bigger now. I absolutely love it. The counters pull all the colors from both cabinets and the floor together really nicely. I'm SO excited! My hubby is the best!