How to Build a Kitchen Island With Milk Crates
Major kitchen renovations can be traumatic, but this project will improve counter and storage space while taking only a small amount of construction time. A kitchen island built with milk crates can be easily tailored to existing space; you are, after all working in 12- to 16-inch increments. Light pre-fab crates can be stabilized by using them to store your heaviest kitchen implements. Should there come an occasion when you want to reclaim kitchen floor space or install a permanent island, a milk-crate island is easily disassembled and its components can be used for storage in another location. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- 12 prefab plastic or wood milk-crates 16 by 16 by 16 inches
- 50 inch x 36 inch countertop, at least 1 inch thick: plywood, laminated pressed wood, or butcher block
- Epoxy glue or double-faced tape carpet grade or stronger for greatest stability (for plastic crates)
- 16 flat metal hinge-strips, 4 inches long (2 screw-strips and screws) for greatest stability (for wood crates)
- Heavy kitchen utensils such as a mixer, blender, dutch ovens, soup pots
Instructions
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Stack crates to form rectangular base. All crates face out and are most easily described using compass directions. Make two stacks of two crates each, facing "north." Make two stacks of two crates each, facing "south." In between them, stack two crates facing "east" and stack two crates facing "west." The stacks will form an island counter 4 feet, 2 inches long by 3 feet wide.
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Secure "north" and "south" stacks, with glue, heavy double-face tape, or hinge strips, depending on their material. "East" and "west" stacks can either be secured or left unsecured.
Fit stacks tightly together. Your island base is completed.
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Place countertop on base. Weight of the top should be sufficient for security. If not, use glue, double-face tape or smaller hinge-strips for added hold.
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Fill bottom open-crate shelves with your heaviest kitchen utensils. You have now created places for your dutch oven, ice-cream maker, juicer, ice-crusher, bread machine and your grandmother's serious mixing bowl. Your cooking will take on new creativity now that you can reach these implements, while they, at rest, contribute to the stability of your new island.
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Tips & Warnings
Creating this easy kitchen island offers you the basic strategy to create other kinds of storage units; consider solving the clutter around your basement workroom or even building a home-office or studio work table.
