Building the Breakfast Island

Last year, I decided to retire the old bar stools and glossy bar table I once had in my kitchen, simply because they had seen better days and they no longer fit with the way my style and taste had matured in the nine years I have had a home of my own. I sold them to someone who lives nearby and set about looking for something with a bit more of a farmhouse vibe, as the kitchen really lends itself well to that style and I quickly became a fan of it when I got into watching Fixer Upper on HGTV (and reading one of Joanna Gaines’ books).

Below is a very old photo (I think 2018) showing the previous kitchen furniture.

I thought about building an island, but then thought, don’t be ridiculous, the room is much too small. I spent a lot of time looking at free standing islands, but decided they didn’t work.

What I ultimately went for was my own design, since my search for breakfast tables didn’t turn up much either. I decided to create a sort of double-ended breakfast bar, looking like an island to achieve the same look. Except, “double-ended breakfast bar” didn’t have the best ring to it. Technically, what I built isn’t strictly speaking an island as it doesn’t offer storage, but I decided to call it the “breakfast island”, combining ideas from a breakfast bar and an island.

The idea was to mount a wooden surface to a square frame on one side and a sideways “H” on the other, allowing someone to swing their legs in and slide onto the bar stools tucked underneath. A post on all four corners would make it very difficult to comfortably sit as you’d have to pull the stool out a long way to get your legs in, but then wouldn’t be able to pull yourself closer due to the height.

Three wooden posts were cut down slightly to the right height using a circular saw and then two of them were used to make a square with two other pieces of wood. This was then attached to one of the longer sides of the wooden top, which measured 60 x 90 cm.

I then laid it such that the square was on the floor, and attached tongue and groove panels with wood glue to achieve the island look.

I cut a narrower piece to do the gap left at the bottom and then set about making the sideways “H” using the third post and two more pieces of wood. Some old shelf brackets did a great job of making the structure even more solid.

The bar stools are from Danetti.

The next step was to make a farmhouse-style cross brace on the closed side. This made the structure more solid still, but it was really intended to be more of an aesthetic feature.

I don’t have an effective way of doing this kind of cutting, so I had to hold the wood against the frame and try and mark where to do it, doing two cuts with a hand saw to achieve a pointy end.

The long diagonal was a very tight fit and needed a bit of encouragement with a hammer to get in. The shorter ones were fixed in place with wood glue.

Yes, this really is a remote control helping to keep that piece of wood in place until the glue dried.

Then came the painting. I still had a lot of Dulux Jasmine White from when the living room was repainted earlier in the year, so I just used that up. It worked a treat.

The inside of the closed side was intentionally left unpainted due to concerns over the paint rubbing off onto the stools over time.

I’m really pleased with the end result. Here it is, with updated lighting and furniture in the Living Room part.

Now it’s time to talk through my choices of accessories to style this out…

• There are two log slices that act as charger plates. I’ve seen this sort of thing done on tables at weddings, but I decided that it worked well here. These came from Dunelm.
• The butter crock, honey pot and pinch dish all came from Neptune.
• The round vase with its faux flowers were also from Dunelm. The Magnolia flowers were a deliberate reference to Joanna Gaines and her farmhouse style.
• Napkin rings were from Neptune. They came in a set of six – I kept two and mum had the other four.
• The button coasters were from Heartmade Interiors, who quickly became my favourite brand on Instagram when I met the sisters behind the business, Jenna and Kate, at the Maisons and Mingle trip in April. I’m very pleased to say they are local to me as well – I can collect orders from them and drop them a hello every time!

And one final brand to mention…

The wooden top for the Breakfast Island came from Penny Wood Bespoke on Etsy. Sam did an absolutely fantastic job making this and shipping it out to me. He is also very local to me and supporting local businesses is always so rewarding. I highly recommend Sam for his top notch craftsmanship.

Not including the accessories and stools, the cost of building the Breakfast Island was about £300. Worth every penny. Sometimes you have to go down the route of building your own thing if nothing on the market suits, and unlike what I had before, this can easily allow two people to sit and eat together and fits so much better in terms of style with the rest of the house.