One day you are arranging a party at home, and preparing food and drinks for all the guests in your kitchen. At the same time, you would love to gossip with some of your friends and families there. For all those things, you need sufficient space and proper seating arrangement in your kitchen, right? That’s where the appeal of islands comes in handy to make things easier for you.
Nowadays, a modern kitchen is incomplete without a kitchen island. Not all urban homes have kitchen islands as a contemporary living element. But it is perfect for a family gathering where all the members can relax, cook and enjoy some moments together.
You might be wondering what it is and how it can be beneficial for your home? A kitchen island is mainly a freestanding cabinet that you can set up in your kitchen. It comes with kitchen stools that provide seating options and some storage drawers to keep various cooking appliances.
There are plenty of ways by which you can construct your own kitchen island. If you are not familiar with DIY projects, in this article, we are going to explain how to build a kitchen island with sink and dishwasher:
Table of Contents
How To Build A Kitchen Island With Sink And Dishwasher
Materials
To build your custom-built island, you need to make a list of the materials initially. The necessary components to initiate the procedure are:
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Base cabinets with back panel
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Wooden blocks
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Wooden board or fiberboard
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Countertop materials
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Industrial adhesive
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Screws
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Saw
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Power drill
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Paint
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Level
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Tape and pencil
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Sanding equipment and supplies
Assemble The Cabinets
A built-in island has the limitations to assemble exactly how you want. But once you take the responsibility of the entire island project by yourself, you can choose as per your wish. The size and shape of your custom cabinets are important factors to fit in the island.
Different manufacturers follow different island designs. So at first, maintain the instructions of the manufacturer to assemble the cabinets to ensure a proper cabinet space. Make proper arrangements for different cabinet parts, except the doors. Otherwise, you may face trouble painting inside of the cabinets.
Then you have to set up the toe-kick separately. Don’t forget to use industrial adhesive for sticking it to the kitchen floor with L-brackets. When the attachment becomes rigid, make the placement of the cabinets inside the toe-kick. To make it secure, screw them together.
Paint The Cabinets
After assembling the cabinets, here comes the most challenging task to paint them. But before you do so, sand the rough area of the cabinets thoroughly. When the surface becomes suitable to paint, go with that. Also, stain each part of both the toe-kick and the cabinet doors.
You need to give proper gradation for an attractive appearance of the cabinets. So consistently take care of these sections. To make the painting bright and shiny, polish it.
Place The Countertop
In the next step, you have to set up the countertop properly over the cabinet. Before you place it, keep in mind the size of the sink and pierce the countertop according to it.
Then, try to overhang that side of the countertop on the island, where the sink is available. Use an industrial adhesive to stick the countertop to the cabinet. The construction needs to be strong enough. So screw each corner of it for a strong structure.
Install Water
After placing the countertop, it’s time for water installation on your kitchen island. Bring in sink and dishwater, place both of them on the upper surface of the island. To enable water supply in these two kitchen appliances, add a pipe to them that establishes a connection with the water source. Before installing it, check out if water runs properly through the pipe and reaches nicely to the sink and dishwasher.
Give The Finishing Touch
Finally, when the installation of cabinets, countertops, sink, and dishwasher is complete, paint and stain the cabinet doors. Don’t forget to clean the island surface before doing that. Keep a garbage disposal area so that you don’t find trouble with them later. In the end, keep two or three counter stools for sitting arrangement if needed.
What Space Do I Need For A Kitchen Island
Many people have no idea whatsoever about the ideal size of a kitchen island. But from our experience, we can say a proper kitchen island needs a minimum space of 10 feet width and 12 feet length to set up different parts of it. So in that case, the size of the island can be around 4 feet x 2 feet wide. Try to manage ample space to sit and walk around with comfort. It is always better to keep some additional storage in case you don’t face issues when the family grows bigger.
How Can I Use The Space Under The Sink And Dishwasher?
Once you finish building the kitchen island, there is now a particular space under the kitchen island sink and dishwasher. You can utilize that space to store various kitchen appliances. That approach will make your task easier as all the kitchen tools will be closer to your hands all the time.
Do’s and Don’ts Of Making A Kitchen Island
Measurement
Building a large and spacious kitchen island is always tempting. But it will entirely depend on your kitchen size. If your kitchen doesn’t have sufficient space, design an island with proper measurement so that you can place it nicely in your kitchen.
Proper Material
The countertop of your kitchen island needs to be a high-quality one. You can choose from a variety of materials for its construction. However, we recommend you to use Concrete and Cement since they are durable and sturdy. Granite countertops are also in the priority list of many to design a kitchen island. The surfaces made of granite are mainly scratch and heat resistant. So you will be free of all sorts of tension. To manufacture stylish islands, you can even build Marble countertops. Moreover, they are strong and rigid. But maintain necessary safety cautions to avoid scratches while using marble.
Budget Issue
Another important factor in making a kitchen island is budget. You can design your own island as you want. But a well-constructed island will require a significant amount of money. So before choosing the necessary materials and parts of the island, try to keep the average cost feasible enough for you.
Final Words
A kitchen island is nowadays an integral part of urban homes. In fact, your kitchen responsibilities become very much easy once you set it up with both the sink and dishwasher.
You can establish it in your kitchen after buying from any wood repairing shop. But building your own kitchen island is beneficial by saving your money. Also, you can design it according to your own preference.
So what’s the delay? Gather necessary materials to build the kitchen island and go for the challenge. Good luck!