Custom Kitchen Islands: Build a new one or update an existing one
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Custom kitchen islands vary from the totally custom-made and custom-finished island to match your custom cabinets, to a much cheaper island made out of standard size countertops and cabinets put together in unusual ways to give a custom look. If you're planning an island in your kitchen, don't assume that it has to match the perimeter cabinets in cabinet finish, countertop material, or height: you can use the island to give your kitchen a distinctive custom look.
Read on to learn about the many ways to create a custom kitchen island which fits you, your kitchen, and your lifestyle, then visit the Custom Kitchen Islands page at http://www.floorplanskitchen.com for lots more tips for creating a custom kitchen island, plus potential gotchas and difficulties to avoid as you plan.
Table of Contents
Materials for Creating Your Custom Island
Use wall and/or base cabinets to create a base for your kitchen island. Then you can customize it in some of these ways:
Materials
Materials
- Customize the sides and ends of the base: add panels or doors to match your cabinets, cover them with wallpaper or fabric (varnished for protection), panel them with decorative materials like beadboard or tile or even use a translucent material and light it from the inside.
- Use several counter-top materials: possibly a butcher-block prep area with a soapstone slab for pastry
- Change cabinet colors on the base to contrast with your perimeter cabinets: antique-look vs modern, painted vs stained, dark vs light
- Use a two-tone color scheme on the island cabinets: light and dark wood panels, distressed or antiqued paint finishes
Details to Decorate your Custom Island
- Add legs to the ends, or to support an eating counter. Look at old tables for proportions and sizes: some island legs I've seen in magazines are way oversized and clunky-looking to me.
- Light your island with several decorative pendant lights: mini-chandeliers, industrial lighting, art glass shades, whatever you enjoy. For most flexibility, make them dimmable.
- Include appliance drawers: freezer, dishwasher, fridge, even a warming drawer for plates and finished dishes.
- Use small gaps between your base cabinets for bottle storage, narrow pullout racks for spices, display niches, cutting board or baking sheet storage, pull-out towel storage, cookbook shelves etc.
- Tuck a small movable island in or under a larger fixed island for flexibility
- Install an unusual sink which would not be practical as your main sink: perhaps an odd shape like a trough or less-used material like copper
- A unique or showy faucet can be a great island feature too
Unusual Shapes for Custom Islands
- Modify levels on different sections of the island, up to bar level or down to table level
- Make the island a unique shape. Why should everything be rectangular? Try angles and curves: prototype the shape with boxes to get the feel of how it looks and how it works.
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More Home Decorating and Remodeling Resources
Custom Kitchen Islands at http://www.floorplanskitchen.com for lots more tips for creating a custom kitchen island, plus potential gotchas and difficulties to avoid as you plan.Kitchen Makeovers
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by kevinw1
I grow a big organic garden, save seeds, and promote gardening and local food; help people design and redesign kitchens, provide custom LEGO building... (more)
