Our Own Private Island

He says:

The kitchen is a large space, and we knew we wanted an island.  We have never had one before and so we were excited about building it.  We also wanted an "eat-in" kitchen and so we wanted the island to serve as a breakfast/lunch table as well.  After the kitchen cabinets were finished, we measured the available area and decided on a footprint for the island.  We could not obtain a matching piece of granite within our budget, and contrasting surfaces on islands are "in" so we decided this surface would be butcher-block.  It took a month of stalking the local IKEA to actually snag a piece large enough for the job.  The alternative of ordering a top from Lowes or HomeDepot was 5X more expensive, so we were patient.

The island is built around a 24" base cabinet, to which I added a top table-frame, legs, a narrow shelf for vinegar and oil bottles, and 4 deep shelves for cookbooks.  Everything was placed on a 2x4" base screwed to the sub-floor and all glued and screwed together.  The top was installed and oiled several times with food-safe oil  A quick polish with #000 steel wool made the top shine.