I don’t know about you but I love a kitchen island. Our house didn’t have even a tiny weeny one.

It had a peninsula that divided the kitchen and family room. It wasn’t big enough and felt like it disrupted the flow.

The peninsula had horrible pendant lights too. They were removed immediately upon moving in.

I knew when we started the reno we would remove the wall dividing the kitchen and dining room. I wanted to run a large island down the middle of that space.

I wasn’t sure if we would keep or remove the peninsula until later on in the project. We had our contractor take down the wall dividing the kitchen and dining space. This opens the room up and provided space for a long kitchen island.

The new island was made from stock cabinets with slow close hardware.

The cabinet doors and drawers are a classic shaker style.

I chose one large cabinet with doors for trash cans. My contractor fooled the eye by connecting the 2 doors and drawer for one front. We used a rev-a-shelf trash pullout which has 2 large cans. Here’s my link for this https://amzn.to/3Vp1CnI

I have one cabinet with doors and rev-a-shelf pull outs. My link for the pull out organizers can be found at https://amzn.to/3EA1r36

The other cabinets all have 3 drawers 2 of which are extra deep.

I have 2 deep drawers for our dishes. It is directly across from our sink and dual dishwashers. That makes it easy to unload clean dishes right into the drawers.

The island was 3’ deep by 10’ long and believe it or not it wasn’t long enough. We added one more cabinet for a 3’x12’ island.

We needed 3 light fixtures and made a minor adjustment to center them once he added the extra 2 feet. I love these seeded glass globes and used them in our Pittsburgh kitchen too. My affiliate link for the light fixtures is here https://amzn.to/3QFxAtN

I had electrical outlets added to each end and 2 more in the middle of the island. Each outlet has 2 regular outlets plus 2 fast charging usb and one fast charging usb-c for computers. Amazing!!! My link for the fast charging 5 in 1 outlets is https://amzn.to/3VjYolA

Our contractor covered the back with a thin wood then added some board and batten detail. I kept the design very simple. This side is for barstools and all the people so you can’t see the detail very well day to day.

I primed then painted the island 3 coats of Snowbound by SW. We opted to have him remove peninsula for an open feel.

I absolutely agonized over the countertops. In my head and heart I wanted marble so I went for it.

Because the island is so long we had to have a seam in the marble. Natural stone slabs didn’t come in 12’ sections. I like symmetry so the seam is in the middle and I had the edges done in a rounded ogee.

If looking for quick links to my kitchen hop over here to https://laureldanedesigns.com/home/affiliate-links/affiliate-links-6/

I couldn’t be happier with our island. I love the size, the marble, the seating and the storage.

Cheers- Kristen