Well, it only took 12 years. I built this island for my kitchen when the wife and I moved into this house. It was one of the first projects I made. I never made the outside molding to finish it off. I've been looking at it for the past 12 years and kept saying to myself, "I need to get that finished". Things kind of pile up on you, don't ya know. Here's the way I left it look for the past 12 years:




Here's the way it looks now. I made it like the trim I made in the house.

Nice. Really adds to your original work. We just built a new house last year, its getting there slowly in terms of finishing projects. I have done a lot of the flooring and finish work myself. Hired someone to pour the basement, had help with the major framing. Hired out the majority of the electrical, but the rest I have done myself. I have a list of wood projects to build when the time permits. I logged some trees on our place and had them cut into boards. List includes a kitchen table, island top in the kitchen, mudroom bench and coat rack. Big raised bar top for the basement, etcccc

have you anticipated the wood movement in the top?
I mean the center will grow and shrink across the grain.
The trim on the ends will not grow and shrink with the rest of it.

Or am I missing something?

I once made a coffee table with the same setup.
The ends ended up splitting off the rest of the table.

Other wise looks very good.

That’s lovely!!!

That looks pretty sharp!

Nice job wife should be happy.

Looks great.

He stated that the first pics, including the top, have been there, as shown in the first couple of pictures, for 12 years. Guess it's stable by now.

The top is a butcher block top I made from maple 12 years ago. I couple of things. I gorilla glued it together. All of the end pieces are scattered, I made this pieces 4" wide and every piece had screws in it to help keep it from moving. After the was made, I urethaned the under side of it to keep moister out and the top gets oiled. It's been 12 years and the few miner issues that did appear, did so in the first couple years. These were filled with epoxy and taken care of. It is quite stable now and has been for about a decade.

Very nice Finster!

You have a good skill.

My Mother had a rental farm house that had a similar sized island. I was fixing the house up and was working around the dang thing until one of my sisters told me it moved, lol.
Here it was on wheels bit you'd never know it unless ya gave it a good push.

Is that just oil on top or is it epoxy? Pretty good shine.

Just a wood finish for butcher block. I use it for my cutting boards also. It's called "Watco 241758 Butcher Block Oil & Finish" You can get it at lowes or off Amazon It dries and has a nice shine when you're done.

Into wood grain and you did a fine job, like the foot rail. Charlie

I still don't know if I like the foot rail. I didn't at first, but it's kinda grown on me some. We bought new chairs for it, and it makes the foot rail look better.

Looks fantastic and glad to see you’re back at it!