An Island Makeover:: A Guest Post

An inspiring guest post from my favorite blogger who also happens to be my sister, Emily from Chatting at the Sky. She is a writer and photographer who's always finding the holy in the midst of the mundane.

An island in the kitchen is a luxury. It is a place to gather, a place for the kids to play while mommy cooks the dinner, a place to prop your elbows up with friends over appetizers and cookies.

When we first moved into our home nine months ago, I was thrilled to finally have a kitchen with an island. It had a prep sink, which I was happy about. But that meant it also had less counter space.

There was no money to make a bigger one, and no room for that matter. Instead, we improvised and made a few adjustments for the island to feel a little more functional and pretty. First, we added six inches to the back edge of the counter and replaced the sink faucet.

As we lived with it, I grew tired of the orange-y wood color. We decided to paint the cabinets black. We had bead board added around the island and then, we painted it Sherwin Williams Navajo White (6126).

Now, our island is perfect for kids and cookies, elbows and blocks. If I decide to get even fancier, I can add those thingies underneath the counter to look like its holding it up but really its just there for looks. But for now, fancy can wait.


Granted, this project took a little more than a hot glue gun and high heeled shoe. But if you want to do a little kitchen sprucing without ripping the whole thing out and starting over, I am here to tell you what a difference it makes. I am so glad we did this during our first year in our home so now we can get full use of it. Thanks, sister, for cheering me on as I decided to have that island redone!

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From The Nester: Thanks Emily. I love what a HUGE transformation you made just with paint, bead board and granite! Be sure to visit Chatting at the Sky for more inspiration in lots more categories than just house stuff . If you have the time and don't know her yet, a few of my personal favorite posts of hers are: Be More Do Less, Skates are From the Devil, The Now Dancer, Confessions, and The Office: A Makeover. Love you sister!

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Some of you are asking about the post showing the redo of her previous kitchen enjoy!