Restoration Hardware Inspired Island: The Details

Hi All!
As promised, I am here to give you a few a LOT more details on my Restoration Hardware inspired island that I first posted here.

Click here to see more tons of pictures of the island… and read on to learn all about how I built the island!

{Update since building island...with the extra wood from this project, I built a fireplace mantel after painting my brick white {all while my husband was out of town!!}

I saw this island when it first came out in the Resto catalog years ago. I loved it instantly. I love everything in that reclaimed/rustic wood collection, actually.  There’s something about that wood that is so comfortable and relaxed, with its rustic farmhouse style it softens the modern look of hard stones and crisp white paint.  I drooled over the island for months years. 

I wanted to buy it so badly…but…But…BUT {there’s always a but}…but in this case there were a handful of -em:

~price: with shipping and tax it comes to over $3,600!
~size: it’s MASSIVE…I swear one would need to remodel their kitchen and design it around the island: it’s 8 feet long by almost 3 1/2 feet wide.  H.U.G.E.
~um, price~uh, it’s WAAAAAY too big for my kitchen
~did I mention the price tag?

Ok, so that’s only 2 reasons…but 2 pretty BIG reasons!  It won’t physically fit in my house and one of my kids would need to forgo college.

So I just dreamed.  And dreamed.  I wondered if I could turn it sideways and use it as a peninsula instead of an island. I contemplated if removing a 2nd wall from my kitchen would open up enough space for this island to move in with us.  I looked for bar stools for it so I could use it as a dining room table instead. 
I WANTED THIS ISLAND!!  BAD!!

So…what’s a girl to do? 

Design one that DOES fit in her space and
BUILD IT HERSELF!

Let’s start with the wood…Resto’s is 100 year old salvaged pine, hence the name: “Salvaged Wood Kitchen Island”. So I searched the internet and finally picked up the phone looking around for my own 100 year old wood.  Turns out, there are actually lots of companies out there that sell just that: reclaimed wood.  And as luck would have it, there’s a shop just a couple of miles from me:  Black’s Farmwood.  They sell reclaimed and recycled wide plank wood flooring, rustic paneling, weathered barn siding, antique wood beams and more.  To get the dimensions I wanted, they could offer me 100+ year old oak taken from an old barn. It was actually pretty ugly when I first saw it…

…but then they showed me a piece that had been sanded and it all came together right there before my eyes…it was, well, Perfect.  I LOVED IT. 
At that point I knew this was something I had to do.

So I went home and sketched my plan. With my first rough sketch I could calculate the amount of wood to purchase. To keep the cost as low as possible, I bought all 2” by 8”s {which are REALLY 2” by 8”….give or take a little}  Did you know 2” by 4”s today aren’t really 2” x 4”?  They are actually 1.5” by 3.5”…what a rip-off, huh?!  Now, don’t get me wrong…these 2” x 8”s I bought were far from perfect.  They were cut over a hundred years ago with equipment no where near as accurate as we have today.  So some were 8.25 inches, some 7.5 inches, some a little thicker than 2”…but that’s part of the beauty of the wood and the piece.  So for $300 I walked away with all the wood I needed.

Since all the wood was still ugly un-sanded, I got to work right away. It’s a good thing I don’t want this to look too perfect.  Have you ever held a belt sander? It’s POWERFUL!  If you don’t clamp the board down, it will send that board sailing across the driveway.
{Trust me, I know this from experience, wooops.}

Well, after about 12 hours of sanding…

…and another 12 hours whining to my husband begging for a massage…all the sanding was finished.  Finally.

Before…U.G.L.Y.

After…see what I mean?!

So…I have a confession to make…I didn’t build this island completely by myself.  I had some help.  My multi-talented uncle {a computer programmer by trade} followed my sketch a the tee…down to the 1/8 inch on all my various reveals.

 

He wasn’t sure why I was so picky about all my different measurements when I kept reminding him that this didn’t need to be perfect, in fact imperfection was half the beauty in it.  I know, I know, I can be a bit puzzling at times.  But none-the-less…I passed all the wood on to my uncle, handed him the sketch and he worked his magic from there.  He had to rip the 8” wide boards into 4” wide boards for the apron and lower cross beams.  {Which of course meant more sanding when he finished….we moved these boards to and from each other’s houses a few times!} And then he pieced it together, one board at a time.

I told you he is multi-talented! {He created the above little “movie”}

Well, at this point it won’t fit in my minivan anymore…so my uncle agreed to deliver it.

You gotta love his delivery van!

Ok, so let’s move on to part B of this whole island project, The Marble Top!
I am in love with Carerra Marble. It’s timeless and gorgeous. And we love using it wherever we can. It’s in our master bath and on our entryway counter and as a backsplash in the kitchen. So it made perfect sense to top the island with a carerra slab. After dozens of phone calls to every stone supplier within a 50 mile radius and bids ranging from $365 to $1,500… I decided we would pick up the slab ourselves and have it cut by an independent fabricator and bought the $365 slab, of course! You take a risk when you deliver it yourself…if you chip it, crack it, break it…there’s nobody to blame and that’s one expensive mosaic table you can make. But my husband successfully drove the slab from the supplier to the fabricator and finally home.

 

If you look closely, you’ll notice it’s pouring rain outside! I HAD to have it that day!

The fabricator cut it to size: 24” by 63”, eased a square edge, and honed the surface to perfection…all for $190. Total cost of the marble slab including tax: $600.

And wowzers, is it beautiful!

We’re almost done!

We fixed the base in place, placing rubber mats under each leg to prevent it from slipping.

I used the stuff that you’d put under a shower pan for my non-slip feet pads! It’s pretty thin plastic so it doesn’t raise the feet up so high that you can notice something is under there (like the pads that are made for feet do).  Also you can double up the thickness if you need to stop it from rocking. It’s great to use under a table or chair leg if unevenness is making it rock.

So here it is with its plywood top………

And then in comes the marble top…

We checked to see if it was level and needed to shave a bit off one post so it wouldn’t rock back and forth.

Once it was level, it was time to glue it down {with epoxy}.

The epoxy comes in two parts and needs to be mixed…here it is mixed on a piece of plywood.

Look how much my husband loves me…he’s at home on his lunch hour installing my island!

Once the epoxy was spread out, my guys placed the slab on top and I made sure all the reveals were correct.

Let dry Don’t Touch for 24 hours and Viola…
my Dreamy Kitchen Island. 

Let’s review:
~Inspiration: Restoration Hardware Catalog- Free
~Lumber: Black’s Farmwood- $300
~Marble Slab: Import Tile- $365
~Fabricator: North Bay Stone Works- $190
~Tools: Craftsman- borrowed {from my next door neighbor and uncle}~Woodworking: Uncle Bob- $30 for glue/brackets and a WHOLE LOT of love! {I’m not giving you his link!}
~Delivery boy: Husband- I love you!
~New Kitchen Island- $900

You know what the bonus is…I get to cross another item off my 2011 House Goals!

Hummm, I wonder if I just might be able to build the Restoration Hardware farmhouse dining table? Uncle?

To see {even} MORE pictures of my island and kitchen, click here!

Linking up here!