alaskangirl- I LOVE what you did with your island. What do you mean when you say you added cabinet backerboard? I am not sure what that is.

What a great idea for dressing up an island! Did you have to trim the top of the stair balusters,a nd do you remember how much they cost?
thanks!

If you want to really go GLAM... pharaoh (who has the most amazing kitchen) used onyx (I believe) that he backlit! It's so beautiful it's crazy... but not for little feet. I like the idea of framing it out. Depending if your want it to appear recessed or more like a picture frame moulding I think it would be pretty easy to do. (easy for me to say!)

I love your island alaskangirl! I'm hoping you can tell me if your cabinets are standard 24" depth and how deep your overhang is on the island. Thanks!

To answer all the questions -

I have regular 24 inch deep cabinets. I ordered a huge 48x96 inch piece of thin cabinet 'skin' to go on the back of my island, and the same type of 'skins' for the sides (I called it backerboard above because that's what the OP was referring to, I think). I forget exactly what they are called, but they are just a cosmetic covering for sides or backs of cabinets. My huge piece of skin for the island was damaged in shipping, so I decided to cut it in half and use it anyways - that's why I have trim down the middle under my corbel. I like the way it turned out. If I had to order my cabinets again, I would just order smaller skins for the backside to start with because they are less likely to be damaged in shipping.

My overhang for seating is 13 inches.

The stair balusters are ones you can buy at Home Depot. Ours were about $80 each - we decided to get the unfinished oak ones, but they do sell softer pine ones for about $50. We ended up cutting some off the top of the baluster to work with our island height, and I did add quarter round around the bottom. But that's it. We secured them to our wood floor with screws.

I'm in the process of doing picture frame moulding under a chair rail in my dining room. It is fairly easy. I think the most important thing is to focus on getting the distance between/above/below frames consistent. I used a 3x5 card to mark 3" between each frame. It worked great! The frames aren't the exact same size (working around electrical outlets and different sized walls) but you really don't notice.

bluemoon - you didn't say whether or not there will be seating at the island. My island has cabinet doors on both sides, but there is no seating. On the other hand, I also have a peninsula with seating, and that side does look rather plain. Its to the back when coming into the kitchen, so its not something you see (except for when you're seated at the table :( I have always wanted to do something with it tho, even if its just beadboard. But again, if you're island is not for seating, you could just have cabinet doors on both sides (makes it handy to reach items from either side of the cabinet).

alaskangirl - I love your kitchen. What cabinet manufacturer did you go with? Are they painted? I am looking to do this exact color combo. What color granite did you go with? Beautiful!!!

Yes, I will have seating on my island--probably 3 barstools. alaskangirl, I think your island was the one I referenced in my earlier post. I remembered someone making some changes to their island as a DIY project. So I appreciate all your specific details as to how you did it, although I'm pretty sure I'm not as handy as you are. remodelfla, thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to look up that kitchen. I have a feeling onyx may be too fancy for my ranch house kitchen but maybe seeing it will inspire me to try something similar with a different material.

On My House is Worth What there was a homeowner who put cobalt blue mosaic tile on the back of her island, and since her kitchen was cobalt blue it looked stunning. But on this forum I don't see people doing things like that to their islands and I wonder if there's a reason why.

My cabinets were fairly inexpensive - we bought them from Home Depot when they had a 20% off sale - American Woodmark in the Savannah Maple Cream Glaze style. Lowes carries the same cabinets, labeled under the Shenandoah brand. Our granite is Kashmir Gold.

Disclaimer - we did hire a contractor to actually implement my designs and install the kitchen, though I have done the same trim work myself in other areas of the home. It really isn't that hard. You could even use Liquid Nails to attach the trim to the island and eliminate nail holes and such. I once used regular super glue to attach some quarter round on top of laminate flooring, and it held up to abuse for years.

Thanks for the info. Just beautiful!!