Island(s) in the Stream...

Well, kitchen actually, but I have trouble thinking of the word 'island' without thinking of dear old Dolly and Kenny; after three... Islands in the stream, that is what we are...

Anyhoo, back to the point. Previously, the kitchen area of our downstairs open plan space looked something like this:

We toyed with the idea of either putting in an island or else a peninsula on the far right side, pretty much where DC is in the shot above. To get an idea of whether an island would work, we brought the plan chest down from my office so that we could guage the size, shape and position of a possible addition. 

After a couple of months of toying with the idea, we finally took the plunge and ordered several cupboard and drawer units. Then hubby spent a few evenings in the depths of the garage putting them together.

This side there are two sets of two pan drawers.

And this side there are three cupboards. That's the electrician in the middle.

Luckily, when we first had the kitchen and flooring fitted, we had the electrician put a socket in the floor in the approximate area that we thought an island might go (that's the white thing on the floor there), which made this part of the job very easy.

And now we have a double socket at each end of the island. Perfect for plugging in the KitchenAid mixer or a laptop.

Then it was time to put the drawers and cupboards back-to-back in the right place.

Meanwhile, out in the garage, the carpenter had glued together two pieces of oak to form the worktop/breakfast bar for the island. He had to leave them strapped together for a couple of days to make sure the glue held firm and then, together with the electrician, he hefted in this rather large chunk of wood.

Which he then sanded and sanded and sanded, and rounded the corners of.

Then it was time for hubby to fit the pan drawers.

And the cupboard doors.

And oil the worktop.

 Then came the bit hubby was very excited about. And to prove it, here he is doing his excited face/pose.

Finally, after 18+ months in the garage, we got to unpack the remaining eight boxes of kitchen 'stuff' - recipe books, bakeware, tins, glasses, bowls, etc, etc.

 Here's the bakeware drawer, overflowing already - perhaps we need a bigger island...

Now we just need some handles to make it a bit easier to open the doors/drawers and some bar stools.