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Do-It-Yourself Kitchen Island Benefits

A do-it-yourself kitchen island improves your kitchen in several ways:

The DIY kitchen furniture expands your work area in the kitchen and gives you more prep space for meals.
You’re building a kitchen island from cabinets, so you’re also extending your storage space for cookbooks, dishes, serving pieces and more.
Since you’re designing the kitchen island yourself, you can create the look and functionality that works best for your home.
As you learn how to make kitchen islands, you develop the skills and confidence you need to design and create other DIY kitchen furniture and take on more projects around the home.

Building a Kitchen Island From Cabinets

Turning your DIY kitchen island design into reality is relatively straightforward if you use stock cabinets for the island cabinets and doors. Use straight cuts on plywood and stock boards to wrap the cabinets. We’ve got plans and steps for a DIY kitchen island, but once you understand the steps and concepts, you can adapt them to customize the cabinet kitchen island as you like.

How To Make a Kitchen Island That’s Perfect for Your Home

Before you begin, consider these tips for designing a kitchen island that’s perfect for your kitchen:

Size the do-it-yourself kitchen island to give you the space you need without making it more difficult to move from area to area in the kitchen. In general, you need to allow a minimum of 36 inches of clearance but ideally, 42 to 48 inches will be more comfortable and usable. If the kitchen needs to be wheelchair accessible, you might need as much as 60 inches to allow a wheelchair to turn around. Use the instructions below as a guide, but scale the measurements to fit your space.
Think about your existing cabinets and countertops and how you can match or complement them with your new DIY kitchen furniture.
Building a kitchen island from cabinets gives you an opportunity to create a new look for your kitchen by painting your kitchen cabinets or simply fine tune your décor with new cabinet hardware.
For a larger and more impactful upgrade, you can pick a new countertop style for your kitchen island and install new kitchen countertops to match.

Do-It-Yourself Kitchen Islands: Your Options

The range of cabinet designs, countertop types and hardware styles gives you a lot of flexibility to create a custom kitchen furniture piece that fits your décor.

Decide on traditional or transitional stock cabinets.
Choose a door style, such as shaker or square.
Select pulls or knobs from a huge range of finishes and designs
Decide on your countertop. Popular in-stock materials include laminate, butcher block and solid surface options. Just make sure it matches or complements your existing countertops and doesn’t include a backsplash.

Before you begin building the island, order the countertop — for this design it’s 21-1/4 inches wide by 56 inches long — so it’s ready for installation once you complete the base piece.

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Steps to Build the Do-It-Yourself Kitchen Island Case

A woman using a DeWalt drill, clamps and glue to secure the back to the base of the kitchen island.

Attach the bottom to the base frame using glue and screws. Drill a countersunk pilot hole to avoid splitting the wood before driving each screw. With the bottom attached, secure the back to the base. Apply glue to the back base rail and then clamp the back in position and secure it with screws.

Tip

The architectural style of the end panels is achieved by nailing a few boards to a sheet of plywood with another piece of thin plywood set in the middle for a dramatic look. Cut each part to fit as you go, working with one board at a time.

Cut 1/2-inch-thick boards for the end stiles (F), the vertical members of a panel, to match the height of the ends (Project Diagram, Drawing 2). Apply glue to one stile and nail it to the plywood so the edges, top and bottom are flush. Next, cut the two end rails (G) to form the horizontal members of a panel.

Test the length by placing the remaining stile against the end of the rails. If the stile overhangs the plywood, the rails are too long and need to be trimmed.

A woman securing the end panel to the base assembly with a yellow DeWalt drill.

Stand the ends upright and attach to the base/back assembly. Drive screws in the open area at the bottom of the side below the bottom rail and in the area that'll be covered by the end panel (K). This reduces the number of fasteners that'll require wood filler.

When securing the top portion of the end to the back, verify that the back is standing vertical and not bowed. A bowed back may cause the cabinets to not fit properly.

Steps to Trim the Do-It-Yourself Kitchen Island

Pilasters are a key element that make DIY kitchen island designs like this one look sophisticated. Cut the pilasters (H) to length to match the height of the back (Project Diagram, Cutting List and Drawing 2). Sand the parts, apply glue and assemble two half pilasters using nails.

Good to Know

When nailing a board, you have two choices: Drive the nails by hand or with a brad nailer. The nail gun nails should be the same length as the hand-driven nails called for in the drawing. There are three main benefits to a nail gun. You don’t need to drill a pilot hole. The nail enters the wood without the force of a hammer, which can cause parts to slip. When the proper air pressure is set, you can bury the nailhead 1/16 inch below the surface of the wood. That means you don’t have to push the nailhead below the surface of the wood using a hammer and nail set. Choose an 18-gauge brad nailer for finish nails up to 2 inches long, and use a 15-gauge brad nailer if you need to drive longer nails.

A person using a spacer to set the cleats at even heights for level shelves.

Cut four 3/4-inch square dowels 11-1/4 inches long for the shelf cleats (L). Glue and nail them in place (Project Diagram, Drawing 3) and attach with glue and nails.

The key to setting the cleats at the same height so the shelves are level is to cut scrap boards 11 inches long. Then rest one shelf on the bottom (C) and then glue and nail a cleat while it rests on a spacer. Move the spacer up to position the next cleat and repeat for the opposite side. The cleats can be positioned at whatever height you need to customize your storage needs.

Use your miter saw to cut a miter on each end of the base trim (N) so it fits between the pilasters. Glue and nail the trim even with the bottom of the cabinet (Project Diagram, Drawing 4).

Tip

The baseboard you choose will set the style for the project. You can choose something bold or something simple. Even a 1/2-inch-thick board 3-1/2 inches tall with a top edge sanded very smooth is appropriate. Select baseboard moulding that's 3-1/4 to 4-1/4 inches tall.

How to Build a DIY Kitchen Island

Tools and Materials

Tools

Materials