DIY Ikea kitchen island

Does your kitchen desperately need more counter and storage space? Here is how to make your own easy DIY Ikea kitchen island! And you can do it in an afternoon!

We downsized last year from our big family home into a villa half its size. I went from a large kitchen with plenty of counter space and a huge island in our old house to a weirdly-shaped, badly laid-out yet sprawling kitchen in the new house.

You’ve probably heard about a kitchen work triangle and how important it is.

Basically, a work triangle is the 3 main work areas you use in your kitchen: the stove, sink, and refrigerator.

Placing them the ideal distance apart will make cooking easier and more efficient.

Everything is spread along one wall in a very elongated L-shape in my new kitchen with the fridge at one end and the sink all the way at the other. The counter space isn’t very functional either.

(Excuse my nosy cat, Stallone, in the picture. He must follow me everywhere while ignoring me…)

I knew I needed an island right in the middle.

That way it would be right in front of the stove and when standing there I would be closer to both the sink and fridge.

Figure out where to place your island.

Measure how big you want your island to be.

Would a square shape work better? A rectangle?

Do you want shelves? Doors? Drawers?

Use a large piece of scrap cardboard or masking tape on the floor to mark out where your island should go.

Make sure you have room to walk around the island and that you have enough room to open lower cabinets, drawers, the oven door and fridge door!

I knew I wanted my island to be rectangular and not too big, so I used a leftover piece of cardboard that was 2 feet x 3 feet as my visual aid. I moved it from spot to spot in the kitchen to see if it was big enough, but still allowed me to open the oven door and walk all around the island.

You can see my cardboard island here.

Once you have your shape, it’s time to go shopping!

I love Ikea products! They are sturdy, well-made, fairly-priced, and (most of the time) easy to assemble.

We are lucky enough to have an Ikea store here in Tampa, so we were able to save some money by ordering our parts online and picking them up at the store.

However, Ikea’s shipping can be expensive, so I have also included Amazon links if you’d rather use your Amazon Prime and go that route.

(Just so you know, this page contains some affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). As an Amazon Associate, for example, I earn from qualifying purchases. However, I only ever mention products I love and would recommend whether I was being compensated or not. Thanks for your support in this way. Click here to see my full disclosure policy.)

I have seen tons of DIY Ikea hacks on Pinterest so I had an idea of what I wanted to do.

My DIY Ikea kitchen island.

The main structure is an Ikea Kallax shelf unit. They come in a variety of colors but we chose walnut effect light gray.

I knew I wanted drawers in my island for storing my measuring cups and other tools.

I have a large Ikea Kallax shelving unit in my home office. We bought a drawer insert for it several years ago and it is solidly built and very handy.

So, I got the same one for the island. It is a Kallax high gloss white insert with 2 drawers.

I needed a place to store my rice cooker and crock pot because I use them a lot. But the lower cabinets in my kitchen are narrow and deep, so I always have to pull everything out in order to get to one or the other of them.

Since I keep the rice cooker and all its extras in its original box, I wanted a cabinet with a door to hide it in. The crock pot is fine just on a shelf.

So, I got a Kallax high gloss white insert with a door to hide the rice cooker.

What to use for the top of the DIY Ikea kitchen island.

As sturdy as the Kallax pieces are, I knew it would get spills and stains if I left it as is. So, for the top, we talked about maybe getting a piece of granite or butcher block. But both of those can be pretty expensive (a 2’x3′ maple butcher block at Home Depot was $239 for example!).

So we used 2 Låmplig bamboo chopping boards! They have a raised edge on one side so when you turn them over they create a nice finished edge. Now, I will say these were a bit expensive, but honestly, they will last forever and it was worth it during this crazy quarantine time to be able to order everything I needed all from one place and pick it up all at one time.

By the way, since I knew the chopping boards would get a lot of use, I also got a bottle of their Skydd wood treatment oil (made with food-grade mineral oil). It’s a pretty big bottle and you only need a little bit to treat the boards every few months, so it should last a long time.

Finally, I wanted to make the island movable. So we decided on Rill casters. Rubber casters won’t damage or mark up your laminate or tile floors.

However, they were not in stock, so my hubby got some locking rubber casters at Lowe’s on the way home.

How we assembled our DIY Ikea kitchen island. (super simple!!!)

(I’ve included a parts checklist printable for you down below. 👇)

Here are all the parts! Exciting!

My hubby loves to assemble stuff, so he did the honors! 🙂

First, he put the main cube together.

Then he flipped it over and added the casters.

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Adding the inserts.

The drawer and insert units are easy to assemble. I got side-tracked and only took 1 picture of this because he did it really fast!

They are basically 3-sided cardboard inserts.

The drawer insert comes with the sliders already attached to the sides. You just anchor it in place to the wall of the shelving unit so it doesn’t slide around. Then all you have to do is put the drawer together and attach the sliders. Then simply slide the drawers in!

The cabinet insert is basically the same. You fold the 3-sided part and slide it into the cubby space. The hinge of the door is then attached to the hinge on the one side (which actually secures the unit to the wall of the cubby, so it doesn’t slide around.)

Here’s what it looks like with the 2 inserts in and the chopping boards just sitting on top. They are not attached yet.

Adding the cutting boards.

So, after much discussion, we attached the cutting boards with Command strips. We’d also talked about using liquid nails to attach them permanently, but decided to try this way first so we could take them off to really clean them. We can always use the liquid nails down the road if we want to.

We attached each chopping board using 4 Command strips (so 8 total for the 2 boards). They do not move or slide AT ALL. I’m really glad this is the way we decided to go.

(Note: Make sure you wash and thoroughly dry your chopping boards before attaching. There is a slick coating on them, so when we tried to attach the Command strips at first, they wouldn’t stick!)

And that’s it!

Oh, one last thing…

I think I’d like to add a 12″ towel bar like this one on one or both of the ends. It will make them even more functional because besides hanging a dish towel, I can hang large spoons or my small cutting board on them. I just haven’t gone out to get them yet.

DIY Ikea kitchen island UPDATE:

I decided to add a large Command hook at one end instead. It makes it super easy to hang my small cutting board. It’s easy to grab right when I need it and now it doesn’t get buried between the larger cutting boards in my cabinet. Score!

Here’s what it looks like:

I love using Command hooks, especially since they hold really well but are easy to remove! Here are more ways to use Command hooks throughout your home to decorate and organize!

Click below to get the parts checklist 👇)

Here are some more views of the finished island.

Doors and drawers open:

This is what the island looks like from the back. Still sleek and finished!

How much time it took to put the island together.

Because my hubby is an assembling whiz, he got it all put together in less than 2 hours!

It may take you a bit longer (if you’re slower like me) but really, it can easily be done in an afternoon.

My DIY Ikea island all set up and ready to go!

So after some experimentation, this is how I finally decided to configure our island. There’s plenty of room to walk around it, I can open the cabinets and oven door, and it’s the perfect distance from the sink and the fridge.

It has made my kitchen much more efficient.

So, make your kitchen more functional today by creating your own DIY Ikea island!

Looking for more kitchen storage ideas? Check these out!