We took the kitchen island over to the new house a few days back and I think it’s going to look smashing with the white wood floor.  I thought it was the perfect time to give you our project checklist for the kitchen island of everything we have yet to do with it.  Because there are quite a few things.  If you missed it….

Several months back, Deb and I ran to Illinois to purchase this 12′ store counter.  I had been looking at it for a few weeks on the Facebook marketplace.  You know once you see something, it keeps popping back up.  So, we finally made the decision that it just had to go in our new house as our kitchen island.  It was stained really dark stain when we bought it and had a wood top made from 2 x 12 boards.  I knew once I saw it that I would be stripping the darker finish which I got right to work on once I got home.   

Our Project Checklist for the Kitchen Island

Countertop

The first thing you may notice is that there isn’t a a countertop.  Deb removed the original boards now, simply to make transporting it to the new house easier.  This counter is HEAVY.  The countertop guy is coming today to measure  our kitchen cabinets for the countertops we chose.  He will also be measuring the antique counter for those as well.  We chose white quartz with small brown flecks.  I think it will look pretty with all of my woods and white.  

So, the countertop is one of the items on our project checklist for the kitchen island.  But there is so much more.

The Base of the Counter

If you notice, there is a dark base around the bottom of this counter.  I believe this was added to hold the counter sturdy.  And, it is stained really dark brown.  It is also made out of 2x4s which is why I didn’t strip it when I worked on that part of the project.  I will be painting that white to match the floors so that it disappears.  Or a lighter brown color to match the counter. I am unsure yet.

Inside Shelves

There are two shelves on the inside of the counter and the middle is open. Deb is going to add another shelf to the middle matching the original ones.  It will give us so much more storage.  This is where we will store our dishes, bowls, etc.  We love open shelving for these items because they are so easy to grab since we cook almost every meal at home.  

Trim Around the Shelves

Deb will be adding some sort of trim all around the inside shelving.  It will not only make it looked more finished, but it will cover up the screws that are showing.  She did this with the counter that we have here in the cottage and it looks really nice.

Paint

Like I stated above, I will be painting the base of this counter.  And, I will be painting the inside of our counter white as well.  I love a bright white inside of cabinets because you can see everything better.  And our dishes look pretty agains a white background, too.

Sealer

I want to seal our counter with some type of sealer to prevent it from getting stained with any spills that occur.  It will probably be the same sealer we will use on the floor which will be a water based sealer.  I don’t want to change the color of this raw pine wood at all, so I still need to do some research on what would work best.

Small Drawers

When we went to pick up the counter, we bought an old card catalog from the same guy.  It happens to fit perfectly inside the counter on one of the shelves.  I thought it would be pretty cool to have a few small drawers for storage as well, but we will see.  As you can see, I started stripping it but haven’t completed that project.  This is something we will probably make up our minds about right at the end of our project checklist.

A few side notes on the kitchen, because I know I will get comments or questions.

The large range hood is going to be changed.  They framed it up too large and it’s too low.  So that has to be adjusted due to safety.  Deb is going to trim that all out and add a small picture shelf once we move in.  And don’t forget about the two antique cabinets that we have for each side of the range hood.  I am hoping those will work for that area.  If not, we may have open shelving.  And, the kitchen cabinets along the other wall aren’t done.  They had to adjust a few pieces before hanging them.   Also, there will be crown molding around the top.

Stay tuned for our project checklist for our kitchen island to be completed in the next few weeks.  I’m excited to get it started.