Installing a kitchen island can make a huge difference to the look and work area to your kitchen. So what should a you look for in your perfect Island.
Organizing a Kitchen Island
A kitchen island is the open-plan kitchen-diner’s top secret device. A well-planned one performs many roles – from housing and hiding appliances and providing seating space at a breakfast bar, to making a divide between the cooking space and the dining area.
Where To Put
It the most obvious place is at a central point in your kitchen, so it permits masses of space for manoeuvring around it. Before you plan it ( whether in a showroom or with your builder ), it’s critical to ensure that there is essentially enough space for the island in the space you have, and that when you are working at it, you will not constantly clash with the units opposite – there is no point in placing your sink there if you have got to move each time any person wants to open the cooker door on the other side of the kitchen. Similarly, shoehorning in a wide island that takes useful space from the remainder of the room beyond it’ll only make your kitchen feel smaller. Our guidance? If you can, make an enormous paper template of the island you have planned in your head, drop it on to the floor in the right spot in the room and live with it for a day or two. If it is a squeeze you will soon know.
What To Put In It
presuming you are planning your kitchen with a good designer, they’ll give you lots of pointers – but it is vital to go in with your own concepts.If you are a keen cook, an island that accommodates the hob will enable you to face out into the dining / seating area where your visitors will gather. But the island will have to be deep enough to permit some work-surface space at the rear of the hob, for safety reasons, if not practical ones. If your island is narrow, you could be restricted to a breakfast bar – a bonus if your kitchen isn’t sufficiently large to house a dining area, too. Ideally, avoid putting the sink in an island – it’s the focus of the room and your eyes will be forever drawn to a bunch of washing up. What goes underneath truly is dependent on the remainder of your kitchen – if you lack space for storing, additional drawers will be a bonus. If you have enough already, the rest is pure luxury!
Here are a few tips on building your ideal kitchen island:
One. Take the tops and doors off the cupboards, and line them up, side-by-side in the kitchen where you would like the kitchen island to go. The doors and tops can be removed with a screw driver. Ensure the cupboards are flush with each other.
Two . Pre-drill a hole thru the top and bottom of the side of the central cabinet front frames, into the opposite cupboards. Do this on each side.Screw the cupboards together thru the pre-drilled holes. Repeat this on top and bottom sides of the back frame of the central cupboard, to totally secure your three cupboards together.
Three Run a line of wood glue along the outside backs of the cupboards and along the outside edge of the plywood veneer. Place the veneer over the back of all 3 cupboards, ensuring all of the sides are flush.Nail prepared starting with the top, putting a nail each 2 or 3 inches, then the sides and bottom alongside down the middle of the veneer.
Four Place your counter targeted over the cupboards. There should be about 5 inches overlap on all sides. Trace the corners of the cupboards on the under side of the counter. Take the counter off, and lay flat, traced side up.
Five Miter the ends of all of the five in. planks to forty five degrees, glue the planks into 4 corners and let dry. Place the wood corners over the traced corners on the bottom of the counter, pre-drill holes and screw ready.
Six Replace the counter on top of the cupboards, with the wood corners holding the counter ready.Polish your counter, using the manufacturer’s commended drying times ; apply 3 coats. Reattach the doors of the cupboards and your easy kitchen island is complete.
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