Kitchen Island Part 2: Making her Pretty

If you haven't seen Part 1, take a look! It's all about moving the island :)

When I started my kitchen redecorating project I bought a BHG Kitchen and Bath Special Issue.
Right away I noticed that custom, mismatched cabinets are all the rage.  Painted finishes are also super popular right now.

I love painted cabinets.

From afar.

Painting my own is incredibly daunting. The cabinets I have are quite nice, and I actually really like wood tones, so I'm terrified to screw them up.

Wood cabinets with a painted island, however, seemed do-able.

So I planned to do that.

I also decided to replace the granite counter top on the island with butcher block.

I considered cream paint, but the idea of green got me really excited.

I tested paints and researched butcher block...

and then I started to worry about losing the functionality of my granite.

See...

I put hot pans on my granite.

I cut (with sharp knives) directly on my granite.

I paint and stain my projects on my granite.

In short, I abuse my granite, and it always forgives me and looks lovely after (even if I do have to take a razor blade to it to remove paint.)

What kind of person would I be if I were to repay that type of loyalty by replacing it?  And with something sub-par?

I agonized for days.  In the end I decided to keep the granite.

I also went back to cream paint. Against the granite, it was much better than green.

So disregard all that about green painted wood and butcher block.

This is how my projects go. This is how my brain works. It's all about aesthetics...then reality creeps in.

Anyway, here's what I did...

beadboard on the ends

painted the whole thing cream.

A custom color mixed by the Home Depot to match (I know this is ridiculous...) my purse.  Do you blame me? Look at this girl! Isn't she beautiful?

I bought a sheet of metal and spray painted it copper. Then I mounted it to the wall under the island for the kids to use as a magnet board (alphabet magnets are in the works!)

Glazed the paint to give it a "custom cabinet" feel.

Framed the metal out with molding, painted dark brown.

Added these darling fleur-style wood medallions.

And new hardware...

And here's the end result.  Gorgeous, eh?

I really love how it turned out.  It's gorgeous from the other side, too. The copper really makes it look special! I can't share that view with you right now, though - it keeps showing too many other projects in the background! Soon :)