hello,
i want to make a simple kitchen island with 1 1/2 butcher block top with four legs. are there plans somewhere i can buy? we’re wanting about 30 by 70 (we have a very large kitchen area in our old old house).
we want to put a shelf under the butcher block top without drawers – 12 – 18 inches off the floor.
my thought was to get four legs and make a retangleular 2x frame and screw (kreg jig) the legs to the frame and then the legs to the block.
most my skills have been on framing and finish work on our house.
thanks for any ideas.
Replies
ice,
welcome.
a cabinet with that much area is begging for drawer and storage space. it would most likely behoove you to make the thing using face frame construction. this is not a difficult thing to learn. lots of good books and online support, not to mention the combined wisdom on this website.
eef
re:Eef
thanks. i'll look up 'face frame construction'...
Mel came up with a good line in one of his recent posts - "To err is human, to anticipate is design". I think that applies to your island idea. Your design will, I think, depend on two elements - the functional aspect of how the island is likely to be used, and, secondly, what sort of decor it needs to compliment.
The 30" x 70" size, and a central location is likely to invite fairly heavy usage. You might, for example, anticipate someone hopping up and sitting on it. As such, it will need to be fairly sturdy. Plus, a heavier design will avoid the "spindly" look in the large space. I'd lean toward having stretchers between the legs at the top, and under the shelf, perhaps 4" - 6" in width, nice, strong M&T joints. Almost like a tall workbench. Or, perhaps a modified trestle design, depending on your decor.
re:R.B.
thanks. the wife like to bake and make cookies, ect.. SO, the large area. really doubt we'll let anyone jump on it to sit (other than chasing a cat off it).
the 'education' starts. i'm going to guess that 'streachers' are just long pieces of wood and i'll have to find out what M&T are.
we've got an old old farm house that is an endless project, so no finehomebuilding layouts ehre. so decor isn't a big issue. the wife saw a 16 wide by 70 long thing at ikea and wanted me to glue 2 together and i just can't stomack 8 legs so... the island project. some that will have counter space and a place for her pans below.
I don't always get the terminology correct, either. Stretcher - a horizontal stick that holds two vertical sticks (AKA legs) together/apart, somewhere near the bottom. Not to be confused with an "apron" which can do the same job at the tops of the vertical sticks. M&T = mortise and tenon.
Although I suppose Ikea has a place in the world, your old farm house might get insulted by the introduction of Ikea furniture into its inner-sanctum, and just fall apart in protest. ;-)
butcher block top
You don't mention if you're planing to glue up your own top or buy it pre-made -- I would suggest the latter and I've seen several online places recently with it on sale. I recently made a 24x48 top and successfully glued up my own, but it was a lot of work to get it glued up flat, and I didn't save much money with the cost of wood over purchasing a premade top. I made my substructure out of oak with legs glued up to 4x4, for both looks and strength. I also included two drawers as well as the lower shelf. As suggested above one as large as you are considering would likely work best with a cabinet frame type base unit.
re:HWG
thanks. pre-made from ikea. pretty inexpensive and i dont have a lot of woodworking tools for what you guys do. mostly framing and finsh stuff around our place.
the wife doesn't want a 'cabinet type frame' as i considered that. seen some nice island out on the net, but way beyond our price range.
did you make or buy your legs? if bought, can you post where you got them if not locally?
Legs
I made my own legs by gluing up 8/4 oak into 4x4 blanks and then rounding the edges with a router. I then used mortise and tenon joints to add attached the stretchers. I wanted the look and mass of the large legs, feeling this was most approriate with the butcher block look. There are many places online that sell legs in many styles, you might even find them locally at the home remodeling stores. I'm sure a google search will find many for you. Sorry, no pics available right now of the table.
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An easy way to go about this might be to buy the legs from a place like table legs.com - I have bought from them few times and was impressed with their quality:
https://www.tablelegs.com/shop-by-products/table-legs/kitchen-island-legs-34-35-36-42/
This might be a nice "stocky" option which would be made for a lower shelf - although perhaps lower than you want - they can even cut mortises for you:
https://www.tablelegs.com/farmhouse-kitchen-leg-3-5x-34-5-or-36/
Just a thought!!
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