If you decide you want to build your own kitchen island cart, you are taking on a a pretty complex project! That being said though, there is no greater satisfaction than building something yourself, especially if it is used on a regular basis. If you decide to go through with the project, here are some great tips that should help you along greatly along the way.
Tip #1) Pick a Good Hardwood – A Kitchen Island Cart is something that you want to last a longtime, so be sure to use quality pieces of wood; specifically, hardwoods. Some of the more common hardwoods you can pick up include ash wood, cherry wood, white oak, red oak, and maple wood. These are pieces of wood that are made from one piece (not like awful compressed wood or particle board!).
Tip #2) Paint and Lacquer Your Pieces Before Construction – For a lot of projects it makes sense to paint and lacquer after the object is built, but in this case, I would recommend doing it before. That is mainly because kitchen island carts are fairly complex and have a lot of parts. To paint it after it is built would be a pain in the neck, especially with the doors, shelves, cabinets, etc. Some people prefer the look of the natural wood, and if that is the case, you can skip this part on paining. For painting, make sure to paint every piece evenly with one coat. Then let the paint dry and paint over with the same color one more time.
Once the paint is dry (if you had decided to paint it), you are ready to lacquer each piece (this is necessary even if you decided not to paint the pieces). Cover the whole thing with one coat of lacquer, let it dry, and then do it one more time. The lacquer will give each piece some shine, and will also help protect the wood and paint job.
Tip #3) Once the Basic Unit is Made, Purchase the Accessories at a Store – You can make the basic box and shelves yourself, but all the extras (like handles, wheels, etc.) should be bought at your local hardware store (like a Home Depot, Lowes, etc.). Sure, it would be cool to make the entire thing from scratch, but making wheels and handles from scratch is much more difficult than the rest, and if you don’t do it well, the entire work will suffer. Not only that, but you can’t really make the wheels or handles yourself if you want them to be some kind of metal! Brass or steel knobs, handles, and wheels will give your kitchen island a much more professional look in the end.
