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Kitchen Island

Heava WoodCabinet Grade 3/4 Ply

My wife and I wanted a large island in our kitchen to increase the amount of countertop surface area. We wanted it to be a bit of an accent piece, so we decided to go with a green color and dark brown butcher block countertop to add some color and warmth to the kitchen. For storage, we opted for drawers over traditional cabinets. We also decided on doing inset doors, which proved to be quite a challenge for me. They're not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out! I made all of the drawers out of 3/4 ply. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably do a combination of 1/2 for the sides and 3/4 for the front and back. That being said- they are sturdy! We used BlumMotion under mount drawer slides, which have a solid, smooth glide and soft-close. The cabinets and drawers themselves are made from 3/4 plywood. I built the entire carcass in 4 pieces- The toe-kick, the two side shelves, and then the big central piece. I didn't do any fancy joints for the drawers, but I rabbeted/dadoed most of the joints where it felt necessary. The countertop consists of two prefabricated Hevea Wood Butcher Block countertops joined together .

"Complete" minus baseboard
"Complete" minus baseboard
Leveling the base
Leveling the base
Assembling the carcasses
Assembling the carcasses
All cabinet pieces assembled
All cabinet pieces assembled
Adding face frame material
Adding face frame material
Drawers!
Drawers!
Adding drawer fronts
Adding drawer fronts
Painted and added hardware. Still needs a top!
Painted and added hardware. Still needs a top!
"Done" (still needs baseboard!)
"Done" (still needs baseboard!)