Kitchen Design, Kitchen renovation, island

We are a couple years into this kitchen renovation and it is really pulling up to the finish line. You make plans, you change plans, you carry out plans, then design change once again, and finally you crawl up to completion. Mind you, you must be patient because this can happen with many aspects of a home improvement project. We are winding down on this one, and we are thankful for that!

island cabinet with yellow countertop

yellow countertop on the island

island, yellow countertop #1

In many of my photos of this never ending kitchen project a bright yellow 1970 formica countertop is the center of the show. Lets refer to it as island counter top #1.  Number 1 came with the house, though it was not an island at that time. I am sure it has been annoying to some folks to see this glowing neon yellow surface in each photo. It has  been annoying to me to see it everyday! It was a sore reminder of the horrendously disfigured primary yellow formica counter tops that covered the rest of the kitchen when we bought this house. The yellow counter top has moved on. It has been replaced by island counter top #4, a solid birch wood butcher block.  The new top looks pretty fantastic, as you can see in the photos below.

kitchen island with butcher block top and stools

birch wood counter top 

It is the perfect addition to the kitchen, in that it breaks up the formica span in the room, and the birch wood has a soft bright look that looks great in the center of the kitchen. Birch wood countertop was the ideal match for our maple laminate floors. The maple laminate is a very light value, which looks beachy and fresh. The birch wood complements it perfectly. We did bring home another IKEA butcher block countertop, actually two different countertops before settling on this one.

kitchen island AFTER with beadboard surfacing and toe moldings

butcher block island top

Our follies were innocent enough. First we bought a counter top at IKEA in the clearance bin. (counter top #2) It seemed perfect at the time, but when we went to install it we realized it was too narrow. What we had purchased was a part of a piece of furniture, the top of a bar, server or island...not a counter top. As a result, it wasn't deep enough to cover a kitchen cabinet. It was only 21" deep, not the 25 inches required to cover a cabinet. We went back to the drawing board, or should I say IKEA, and chose a countertop that was authentically created for countertop use. It fit perfectly. The problem was that counter top #3 was an oak counter top and the color of it was too yellow compared to our very light floors. We took #3 back to IKEA, which was no problem with a receipt. Refund in hand we went with a sample of the floor, to the kitchen department and compared all of the butcher block samples to the flooring piece to gauge which one was the right coloring for our application. The winner was the famous #4 counter top mentioned above, birch wood.

After installation the butcher block upkeep involves applying mineral oil to the countertop. It is easy to apply, must be done several times in the first few days, and then repeated periodically over time. Take a look at the photos...what do you think?

This photo shows the cabinet BEFORE its renovation into an island - right foreground in the 1970 kitchen