Two Easy Ways to Build a DIY Kitchen Island

Because this design is permanent, make sure you like the size and placement before beginning. Allow anywhere from 42 to 48-inches of space on all sides to make room for foot traffic.

You can create a cardboard stencil of your new stock cabinet kitchen island and move it around until you find the right location. Keep in mind that if you’re working over hardwood, you’ll have to eventually attach your island to the floor joists beneath the subfloor; use a stud finder to locate them and line your island up accordingly.

If your DIY kitchen island is made up of more than one cabinet, you’ll need to attach them together:

• Line your cabinets up, using a level to ensure they are flush with one another – use wooden shims to correct any unevenness.
• Use two clamps (one near the top and the other near the bottom) to hold them in place and drill a 1/8-inch pilot hole in the frame adjacent to each door hinge.
• Fasten the cabinets together through their face frames using #8 x 2½-inch cabinet screws.

Never connect cabinets through the side panels, as they cannot hold the weight and may come apart, ruining your island. Also, it’s best to take doors and drawers off of your cabinets until you’re finished installing.

Once you’ve connected your cabinets, fix them to your flooring.

How to Anchor a DIY Kitchen Island to the Floor

• Cut two 8-inch two-by-fours for your mounting blocks. If your island is on the longer side, you can cut longer blocks.
• Place the cabinets in their spot. Mark a line on your flooring along the toe-kicks on front and back of your island.
• Just behind the lines, fasten your mounting blocks to the floor, leaving room for the width of the toe-kick. If over hardwood, use long wooden construction screws that will reach through your subfloor. If over concrete, use concrete anchors and a hammer drill.
• Place your island over your mounting blocks; your mounting blocks should fit just inside the toe-kick area.
• Secure your cabinets by screwing through the toe-kicks into the mounting blocks.

For more guidance, check out how the pros at Landberg Tile DIY used this method to secure their own DIY cabinet island.

Brighten up your old dresser with a fresh coat of paint. Sand away any old paint and rough edges thoroughly so your paint will stick. Wall paint works just fine on wood furniture, so feel free to use any leftover paint you might have lying around as long as it can handle cooking wear and tear.

Latex satin paints are a great choice for a dresser turned kitchen island, as they resist stains better than flat paints.

Make easy-access shelving in your DIY kitchen island by removing and replacing the bottom drawers with wood or plywood boards.

Remove the drawer tracks using a screwdriver or drill, sand the frames, measure the drawer space and cut your boards to size. Then, you can paint your boards with a waterproof paint, line them or cover them with a durable material like cork before placing them in the frame.

Whether you’re building a kitchen island with base cabinets or a dresser, the countertop considerations are the same: it depends on how you’ll use it, your budget and your design preferences.

However, Kiernan does offer one major safety tip for dresser island countertops:

You can install casters for a DIY kitchen island on wheels. Rubber casters with are the best choice for a kitchen island, as they won’t slide and won’t scratch your flooring. Purchase locking casters so you can stabilize your mobile island when needed.

If your dresser has legs, you can use stem-mount casters. These are wheels that have metal, usually threaded, stems at the top, which can be screwed into the legs of your dresser.

If your dresser has a flat bottom, or its legs aren’t sturdy enough to install stem-mount casters, you’ll have to saw them off and install plate-mount casters. Plate-mount casters are wheels attached to flat metal plates, which are screwed into the flat bottom of your furniture.