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Kitchen island
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Tabletop convenience with storage to spare
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By Cathy Dalrymple, photos by John Gaucher, illustrations by Len Churchill
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Trim pieces around the base and the top's breadboard ends cap off some of the island parts.
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All the Fixings
I discovered a dowelling jig from Dowel Max that I really like earlier this year, so I try to incorporate dowel joints whenever I can. And for this project, dowels are used to join the top rails to the stiles. The assembled face frame assembly is also dowelled to the cabinet. I used a 23-gauge pin nailer and glue to join the door divider trim.
The doors have a simple rail-and-stile design with flat panels that fit into 1/4"-wide grooves cut in the stiles and rails using a table-mounted router. Lower the stile onto the bit 3" from the leading end, then lift it off 3" from the trailing end to leave wood for corner joinery. The rails are routed their full length. Join the stiles and rails with two dowels at each joint, but with no glue just yet. Measure for panels to fit within the grooves, cut them to size, then reassemble the doors permanently with glue and clamps.
To match the hinges on my kitchen cupboards, I used European-style cup hinges on the island doors. Before installing, fasten a block of wood to the inside of the cabinet as a base for each hinge. You could avoid this step by using butt hinges mounted on the face frame itself. (See “Hinge Helper” below for your options.) Attach the doors to the cabinet by whichever method you choose, after planing them to fit before staining. The shelves rest on adjustable shelf pins and have a 1 1/2"-wide solidwood trim on their front edges.
Build your drawer boxes according to the openings in your actual project with 1/2" dados cut to accept the drawer bottoms. The drawer sides are glued and nailed together with 11/4" brads. Since the stiles attached to the gables are 1 1/2" wide, you'll need to make a spacer board as a base for the drawer glides. After attaching glides to gables and the drawer sides, slide the drawer into place and check the fit of the drawer front.
I used ready-made, 36"-long legs for my island, trimmed to fit in the space beneath the overhang. As I measured and cut, I left room for vinyl feet to protect the legs as they slide. The legs are dowelled together with skirts that are set back 1/4" from each leg face. The skirts also have an arched cutout to boost legroom and give the island softer visual lines. Attach the front and side skirts with dowels, then attach the leg assembly to the cabinet with dowels and wooden corner brackets. Attach a 3/4" x 3/4" cleat to the top edge of the skirt using #8 1 1/4" screws. This cleat also helps to secure the tabletop later.
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