I’ve made some good progress on my kitchen island! (Again, with loads of help from mom and dad!)

I picked up some stain and sealer for my counter. After much discussion, pondering and soul searching (or something) I decided to stain the counter with a standard wood stain (Cabot’s Penetrating Wood Stain in Pecan) and then seal it with a wax-free shellac that is safe to use on toys.

There are many opinions and options out there for finishing a DIY wood counter. Since my counter is not intended to be used as a butcher block/cutting surface I felt that this option worked best for my situation. I might change my mind and do something else to it… but for now this is what I’m going with.

I applied the stain with a rag and then wiped it off with another cleaner rag, going with the grain and making sure that I got into all the crevices, knots, and cracks between boards.

I love how the stain brings out the grain detail! (I also stained about 4 inches from the edge on the under side of the counter, plus about 10 or so inches under the ledge side.)

I primed and painted all of my cut parts before assembling the base. (The primer is just Kilz and the paint is Behr’s Off White–a creamy white color.)

Then finally, the island started looking like an island! (Minus the side aprons… and the shelf slats aren’t secured.)

This evening I went back to my parents’ to make the drawers. My dad figured out how to make them so really I helped him… but I got to use the scary table saw! And I still have all of my fingers!

We used 1/2″ plywood for the sides of the drawers with 1/4″ inch slots cut into the bottom edge and the inside corners notched out. The bottoms of the drawers are 1/4″ plywood that slide into the slots of the sides. The four sides “lock” together where their corners were notched out.

We haven’t installed the drawer slides yet and they still need faces… but I have almost-drawers!!

Really, it’s the little things that make me smile.

I am this close to having a kitchen island… in my kitchen! (Instead of in my parents’ garage… it’s nice there, but you know… not quite what I was going for.)

Want to see the process from the beginning? Check out my DIY Kitchen Island, Take I and Take II.