Spindles/Decorative Legs on Kitchen Island? Is this wrong? (PICS)

14 years ago

I LOVE this forum and have come here searching for advice and ideas throughout our crazy reno. process and have always found what i needed! but i am STUCK on this one...

My contractor installed some spindles/decorative legs on my kitchen island today, which i was unbelievably excited about, but when i saw them installed, i was confused because the spindles were supposed to be cut (pizza cut) to wrap around the entire corner of the island...this is done on the "front" but on the oven side, they only did the sides and cut them in half...

i asked my contractor why this was and he said that there was a restriction on the front of counter-top over hang and in order for it to work

with stove, they had to cut it in half. He said on the back of island we have a big overhang where we can hide the thickness of legs and that we can't do that on front of counter-top.

i am not sure how i feel about this and i am wondering if anyone can shed some light on the situation? is my contractor making excuses? does this look okay? maybe there is something i can put on the "naked" wood next to the stove so that it looks more finished??

BTW, i am painting all of the trim white, maybe it will look more finished then?

thank you to everyone for all your amazing help in the past!

any words of wisdom would be helpful...

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Comments (11)

michellemarie
14 years ago
I have never seen it done this way on an island. I would probably not do the legs this way, but can you live with it. I don't think I rould proceed without a clearcut plan. Don't you have drawings that show the legs installed? It looks like an afterthought.
flseadog
14 years ago
I agree with michellemarie. Do you have drawings that show what you thought the oven side of the island would look like? I'm not a carpenter or cabinet maker but I don't understand why they couldn't do both sides of the island the same. If there is really a technical reason for this they should have explained it to you while you were still in the planning stages. They are supposed to be the professionals and that's what you are paying them for---to foresee the problems that may not be apparent to the homeowner. I hope others with more expertise on cabinets and carpentry will chime in on this.
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morgne
14 years ago
I think I understand the issue from the pictures. Lemme know if I'm right on this!

On the "front" half of the island there is only a counter overhang of about what? 3/4 inch? (I'm guessing based on it just barely extending past the door front) as opposed to the "back" half that has the extended countertop.

SO. He can only move the legs towards the front of the countertop 3/4 of an inch at max (which would bring them even with the edge). Moving it forward that little may not move the ...

How to say this?

It may mean that the cabinet edge wouldn't be fully "inside" the leg. At the top it would, and at the bottom it would but possible not at the places where the leg is at it's narrowest.

I'm betting that he placed it where it is so that you still have the overhang on the cabinets and the max 3/4 inch or so wouldn't truly bring it all the way in anyway. It might bring it in "just enough" but then be overly fragile AND then it would bring that leg to the very edge of the ctop and much more likely to see damage long term.

If I'm right on the measurements than I think he did the right thing. I think it looks fine! You can double check by measureing how far the back legs stick out past the cabinet face to see if you have the necessary measurements in front!!!
golddust
14 years ago
I agree with morgne. I don't think he could have done it any other way. Technical difficulty alert. It looks fine to me, too. Very custom, even.
lauren870
Original Author
14 years ago
thank you guys so much for your comments...its not the end of the world, and i can live with it, but i just wanted to make sure its not a mistake being covered up...

i do kind of wish my contractor had prevented this problem, but i guess i cant go back...he is a really great contractor and i have been very happy with him so far...

morgne, you are totally right! i went and measured it and if he had done it in the same way that he had on the other side, the top of the leg would stick out 3/4" past the countertop! it makes sense when you explain it that way, i think i just needed a second opinion!

my new question is what can i do with the naked portion of the island that isn't covered with the spindle to make it look more finished?? should i add some sort of molding or decorative piece or should i leave it and just paint it white? maybe once its painted white it wont matter so much??

any ideas would be much appreciated!
lauren870
Original Author
14 years ago
thank you guys so much for your comments...its not the end of the world, and i can live with it, but i just wanted to make sure its not a mistake being covered up...

i do kind of wish my contractor had prevented this problem, but i guess i cant go back...he is a really great contractor and i have been very happy with him so far...

morgne, you are totally right! i went and measured it and if he had done it in the same way that he had on the other side, the top of the leg would stick out 3/4" past the countertop! it makes sense when you explain it that way, i think i just needed a second opinion!

my new question is what can i do with the naked portion of the island that isn't covered with the spindle to make it look more finished?? should i add some sort of molding or decorative piece or should i leave it and just paint it white? maybe once its painted white it wont matter so much??

any ideas would be much appreciated!
sailormann
14 years ago
When it is painted I think you are going to find it looks perfect. :)
User
14 years ago
If this wasn't a retrofit situation where the countertop was already in place, you could have had all the legs done the way you want. That's why countertops are templated after the cabinet work is done. :) With the countertops already in place, well, I would have chosen split posts for all 4 to keep them matching, personally, but what he did is not a bad look at all.
Circus Peanut
14 years ago
I think it will look smashing once it's painted, and you will be the only one who can remember it not looking "quite right". :-)

Besides, honestly, since it's a retrofit, if you really really hate it even then, you could always have an expert trim carpenter remove them and re-do after it's painted, with smaller columns if necessary. But I suspect your guy did the only thing he could do, given the limitations of the column size and the countertop overhang.
morgne
14 years ago
I'm glad I could help explain! It's always good to know why someone has done something weird.

I'm not sure how well it would have worked out even if the ctops were templated after. The legs would have required a large lip on the ctop on the front, several inches, which would have made acessing those drawers and etc awkward. The issue really needed to be dealt with at the design stage in order to be handled correctly. I'm putting links to a couple of island examples where you see they had this same issue and handled it in other ways.

Here the entire legs is inset.
http://www.crown-point.com/islands/images/islands24.jpg

Here the entire leg sticks out until it's flush. Note how the square parts on the top stick out past the cabinetry.
http://www.crown-point.com/islands/images/islands28.jpg

I suggest go ahead with painting it and then stepping back to look at it. I think it's going to look great!

If you don't like it at that point there are still a couple of things that can be done. For instance, you could probably switch from a "wavy" leg to a straight leg. That would allow you to place the legs like you had planned but would obviously be much different visually.
lauren870
Original Author
14 years ago
you all are so helpful! i am so grateful! i feel so much better about it now!

morgne, thank you so much for the examples, i for sure like the way mine looks compared to those...just based on the style of our kitchen and the issues we are facing...but i like to see other ways of doing it, in case we do paint it and it turns out weird...lets hope it will look okay...i feel so much more confident about it now thanks to all your comments!

Thank you all so much again to everyone!!

Spindles/Decorative Legs on Kitchen Island? Is this wrong? (PICS)

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