Sniffle Island

I’d planned to go to the office/shop today (Saturday) to work on the personal project that’s been a millstone ’round my neck for months – a kitchen island/microwave stand. But I’ve got a bad case of the chest and sinus crud; the very thought of sawdust makes me cough (even more than I already am).

And that’s OK (well, the staying home part – I’d rather not be ill), because I swore to myself I wouldn’t touch my pile of lumber again until I’d worked out a new island design in SketchUp. But now I have.

Months ago, I’d decided on something modeled after a Roubo bench; in August, I bought the wood.

But life has gotten in the way, so it wasn’t until two weeks ago that I got around to surfacing any lumber and then I decided the Roubo idea wasn’t going to work; the walnut top looked too nice flat-sawn to rip and reglue into a thick, workbench-like top.

There are all kinds of limitations that preclude adopting many of the helpful suggestions I’ve received: immovable, tangible things such as floor grates and window ledges getting in the way of legs, and the position of the window and door between which this thing must fit.

There are also immovable intangible things, such as my simply not liking microwaves on top of counters…no matter how convenient others find it, and my insistence upon having a tabletop at which to eat, under which I can fit a stool and my knees.

So the above is what I’ve decided upon – a sort of a mix of Shaker and modern, adapted and combined from a number of examples (with particular credit to Mokuzai Furniture for the shelf dado inspiration). The top and two shelves will be in walnut; the rest is sugar pine. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be feeling well enough to drive to the shop and work on it.

And if not, well, I’ll just keep working on improving my SketchUp skills and coming-up-with-creative-solutions skills, because I’ve still a table/counter/cabinet/something (with space underneath for the cats’ food and water) to design and build for the wholly vexing curved corner to the left of my stove. (Note how the window doesn’t allow for full counter depth – fun!)

Yes, yes…I need to caulk in the moulding around the curve (and install shoe moulding). I’m ashamed, but there it is.

— Megan Fitzpatrick