We’ve been struggling with our kitchen for a while now but slowly making it more us. If you’re new here or haven’t seen the latest updates this article is a good place to start. The previous island was always an issue for me. It never felt proportionate in size to the kitchen, it just didn’t take up enough space. We also did the shiplap hack with plywood when we were planning to sell and no shade intended, we’re just leaning towards honoring our colonial homes roots rather than trends.

I’ve actually been searching for a vintage wood kitchen island for years now and just cannot seem to find the perfect one; fit, style and price point. Unable to take it any longer - I decided we were going to make the best of our current one.

Currently

Before

Prior to these plans and feeling hopeless in my search, I had actually been contemplating ditching the island all together. I’ve really grown to love big eat in kitchens with large, long tables. There’s just something so inviting and comforting about them and would also solve our lack of a dining room / entertaining problem. However, my sweet husband who never gives feedback or input felt pretty strongly that we would miss the island if we ditched it, so we found a happy middle.

Keeping the consistency with the bead board we recently added to the walls, we decided to use it here as well and created shelves within the island. I prefer furniture style islands rather than counter / eating islands anyway and we rarely ate a meal there. It’s used mostly for prep / cooking and we serve meals at our table, so this felt like a good use of space and also gives us additional storage for cookbooks, produce, extra bowls, etc.

There’s also just something about a stack of books in any given room that just makes it feel like home to me. When I peak into our kitchen now, it just looks lived in and loved. It looks like the kind of kitchen that has memories and mementos throughout and to me that is timeless. It’s a constant work in progress, we have 80 other little things to accomplish in here; but for a small change it made a very big impact.

Removing the corbels and framing the island entirely gave it so much more bulk in the best way. We also plan on keeping two stools to set throughout the kitchen and have both enjoyed a quick snack at the island since completing - so it’s still able to seat a guest if need be.

Next up: a big beautiful range hood, down with some upper cabinets, sourcing some new stools and eventually this butlers pantry dream of ours.