PROJECT: Mobile Kitchen Island
Our
home features a large kitchen that for all it’s amenities, has far
too little counter work space and storage accommodations. While we’ll
shortly be renovating to solve these issues and more to better support
our needs, some
immediate help was needed. Hence, this project.
This new kitchen island adds five more feet of usable work area as well as convenient storage for cooking implements, containers and dry goods. Additionally, the shelves in the end panel will keep cookbooks close and our large cappuccino cups handy and ready to use. The unit features three externally accessible drawers and two additional drawers above the slide-out trays behind the doors. The pantry unit on the left will hold taller dry goods on its bottom shelf and other smaller containers on its top shelf. The island also features a hard maple butcher block top inlayed with black walnut for a finished look. The walnut and poplar used for this project was harvested right on the property in late 2000.
Because we are concerned with with traffic flow in our kitchen, this project was designed to be mobile on four high-quality locking casters. This did reduce the usable height of the cabinet, but allows for easy fine tuning of its location over time. Further, it can be easily moved to serve in other areas for special occasions. Given our kitchen floor is made of full-thickness brick and quite uneven, two stabilizing adjustable feet are available under one end to insure that the unit does not rock when in use.
The
island is finished with Target
Coatings Oxford water-based lacquer in matt white (slightly tinted) and
top coated with clear semi-gloss. This was my first experience with both spraying
finishes and with that particular product and I have to say I am quite pleased.
with the results. While my technique will hopefully get better over time,
the kitchen island looks nice. What is even better, this project also serves
as the prototype for all the additional cabinetry work to be completed as
we do a major kitchen rennovation in 2003.
If you are interested in the construction of this project, a pictorial
is available for your perusal. Please note that I do not have plans
currently available for this project, but I have received many requests
for the same. I will try to do some once our kitchen
rennovation project is compete. 
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