Wood Island from Old Stock Cabinets

I love a really nice, wood, furniture-type island. They make a kitchen feel warmer and homier to me. The cost, though… the cost can be sky-high.

When planning the kitchen for the Plain Jane, I didn’t want to have an all white kitchen, but I was also stuck in a stock-cabinet budget. So I decided to use some of the existing cabinets to create a new island.

I wanted the island to look custom and not like some base cabinets stuck together. Additionally, I needed to conquer the trickiest part of a wood island which is wrapping it. It’s tough to get the right material, on budget, to match what we already have. So here I’ll break down how I created the island at the Plain Jane, along with all of the bumps along the way.

Fears

I’m not going to lie, I had lots of fears starting this project, and some of them were well founded! I’ve found that pushing myself on flip house projects that are going to be a permanent fixture in the house, rather than a simple piece of staging furniture, ups the ante for me. I am cool with a learning curve on things in my own home, but someone else’s house? Oy…

My fears were really two-fold, with the first being finish. Getting the stain right while matching the new sides was a point of concern for a while, and honestly, it didn’t come out perfectly. I’ll show you below where I had bumps, as well as how I addressed them and what I would do differently next time.

My second fear was woodworking. I wanted to get good clean cuts, especially since I was working with stained wood, which is kind of naked in a way. Mistakes can’t just be covered with some filler and paint. I addressed this fear by planning and taking my time.

The Cabinets

If you already have base cabinets to use, as I did, awesome! If not, don’t despair. There are plenty of oak cabinets to be had out there. Check your local Habitat for Humanity Restore, Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, which is where we sold our extra ones from this kitchen. If all else fails, Lowe’s and Home Depot both sell unfinished stock cabinets in store for very reasonable prices. AND this will save you some work having a fresh slate to stain.

Stain

To get the cabinets lighter, I entertained the pipe dream that it could be as simple as a lighter wax. I mean come on, waxing these puppies would have been SO much simpler. It was at this point that I tried the liming wax. You can see the results of that here, which is when I had to admit to myself that I had a tad bit more work ahead of me.

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I then moved on to determining which method would be the easiest to strip them. I could use a stripper or just sand them. I tried both methods on test pieces and opted to strip. I felt like I could get a cleaner slate that way.

Before stripping, I would encourage you to do your research. You know, youtube it. I found this video from ehow very straight forward and helpful. My one caveat: using sawdust to neutralize the stain didn’t work too well for me. I liked how easy it was, but I didn’t realize that all of the sawdust needed to be removed. Some got stuck in the crevices overnight and created black spots that I had trouble getting rid of.

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I was very excited with how the stain pulled off. However, it was tough getting it out of the grain. You can see in the picture above just how much lighter they were after stripping and sanding, but you can also see that there is still stain in the grain. I’m not sure if I just needed to use more stripper so I could leave it on longer before it dried, if I needed to do another round of stripping, or if I needed something stronger. I used Klean Strip Kwick-Strip. There are more powerful strippers, but they weren’t readily available near me and the increased strength scared me a bit. There are also greener strippers out there. On a previous project, I had used CitriStrip with disasterous results! However, I wouldn’t be opposed to trying it again now that I’ve had a bit of experience. Be sure to use proper protection, including pants and a long sleeve shirt, chemical resistant gloves, safety goggles, and a respirator. The fumes are wicked.

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Restaining

Once everything was stripped and sanded, I began restaining. I went with Minwax Natural as I really wanted them to look as natural as possible. It was at this point where I wanted to cry. Getting them stripped down to this point was tough! And once I put on the natural stain, which has pretty much no pigment, I felt I was back to where I started. It really was the grain that darkened them up again. So, if I were to do this again, I would probably try another layer, or a thicker single layer, of stripper to get deeper into the grain so that the overall piece would read lighter. Still, they were better than when I had started and I was mostly happy with them.

Selecting Wrapping Materials – Wood Species

The next hard part was figuring out how to wrap these things! I needed side panels, back panels, trim to cover the edges, and a toe kick. The most important thing to know first is what type of wood your cabinets are. Mine were red oak, so I first sought out premade panels from Home Depot and Lowes.

Two main options here would be to go with plywood or to purchase basic cabinet end panels, such as these panels from Lowes.. They have a very, very thin veneer on them that can be stained and are only 1/8″ thick. The inset on the side of my cabinet (between existing side panel and edge of face frame) is 1/4″. I planned to sandwich a piece of 1/8″ hardboard and this 1/8″ panel together to make the panel flush with the face frame.

Unfortunately, I encountered stain problems. Although the listing says they are red oak, I had a lot of trouble getting them to match my other red oak. I quickly realized I would need to take the panels back. I later used the stain test panel as the toe kick.

In the end, I chose simple 1/4″ red oak plywood. You can see in the pic below how once the plywood was attached, it was flush with the edge of the face frames.

Back Panel

I originally saw an island panel (3′ x 4′) similar to the Lowe’s side panel above and had planned on using two of those. But somehow, they have disappeared from the site and I’m starting to think I was crazy to think they were ever there!

I had the unique issue on mine in that I was combining the previous island cabs, which had a face frame on both the front and the back, with regular base cabinets. The original island cabs were therefore 1/4″ deeper than the regular cabs. I had planned to build out the regular cabinets and fill in the door and drawer openings on the original island cabinets. Once the back of the island was flush, I could simply attach a thin veneer across the back.

But, since the premade panels didn’t match, I had to move to plywood for the back also. I was leery of using 1/4″ plywood as I thought it could be busted through the old door and drawer openings. I think 1/2″ would have been plenty thick enough, but I couldn’t find good 1/2″ thick red oak plywood. So I ended up with a 4′ by 8′ sheet of 3/4″ red oak.

If all of your cabinets are the same depth and already have backs, I think you can easily use 1/4″ thick plywood.

Trim Pieces

The trim pieces are 1×2 and 1×3 red oak. Take your time in selecting these pieces as you want them to be as straight as possible. Also, pay attention to the coloring for consistency. In the left hand pic below, you can see some variation. I tried to avoid the reddish tones like those on the left.

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Staining the New to Match the Old

Because I didn’t get all of the stain out of the grain on the existing cabinets, I couldn’t just use Natural on the new wood. I needed to go a bit darker to darken the grain. So I used Puritan Pine by Minwax.

After everything was stained, I applied 3 coats of polyurethane.

Assembling the Island

Once the cabinets were squared and set, I put the back panel into place. These little quick clamps really came in handy. I first attached the back panel to the cabinets using my favorite screws. You can check them out here. These countersinking screws require no pre-drilling and they come with a star bit that prevents stripping. I always have these in a variety of lengths in my shop. I was sure to attach the screws where trim would cover over the top to reduce visible screw and nail holes.

Next I cut the vertical trim to attach to the back and sides. All trim was 1×3, with the exception of the two vertical pieces on each end of the back. I used 1x2s here where they butt up perpendicularly to the 1×3, as you can see in the picture above. The vertical pieces should be plumb, and the two side pieces should be flush to the sides of the cabinets. I attached all trim with 1 1/4″ brad nails and my favorite: Gorilla Glue.

Once all 5 vertical pieces were attached (2 on each side and 3 across the back), I measured and cut each horizontal piece to trim out the top and bottom.

Be careful with your nailer. It’s fun to go crazy, but remember, you will need to fill in those holes!

Side Panels and Toe Kick

I wanted to achieve the look of a piece of furniture rather than a few base cabinets strung together. So one key piece I wanted to change was the visible notch from the toe kick on the side.

So I overlaid a full side panel, straight to the floor. I then attached a piece 1×2, using nails and glue from the 1×3 trim on the side, underneath the vertical piece of the face frame to finish off the side of the plywood. I did have to use my Dremel to cut out bit of the previous side panel where it notched into the frame so that the 1×2 would sit flush.

I then finished off the toe kick by ripping down the thin side panels that I had tested earlier. Lowe’s carries a ready to finish toe kick, but it is only 4″ tall. I needed a taller one, so ripping the side panel down into strips worked well. The match is nowhere near as important on the toe kick because it is not right up against the new stained wood and it isn’t very visible in general.

Finishing Touches

Once everything was assembled, I used Minwax wood putty to fill in the nail holes. I also paid close attention to where the new wood met up with the old, which was on the two sides. The right side was especially tricky because the vertical piece of the face frame on that side of the cabinet was just naturally darker any way. So I used a bit of my Tudor Brown Briwax, which you can easily apply right over top, on the new wood. In the pic below I had waxed the bottom of the new piece but not that top, so you can see how it helped blend it in. But don’t be like me – be sure to tape off the face frame so as to not get wax on the old wood!

If you’d like more details on using wax on kitchen cabinets, check out my post here.

Product List

Here’s a list of some of the products I used, all in one spot.

• Minwax Puritan Pine and Minwax Natural
• Minwax Wood putty
• Klean Strip Wood Stripper
• Respirator
• Ryobi AirStrike Nailer
• Screws
• End Panel

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