Here's what I have:
Picked up some lab cabinets for about $40-$50 each from a lab supplier in central PA. The small parts cabinet is a blueprint cabinet from an architectural salvage place in Cleveland Ohio.
Set them up in the "U" shape:
I decided not to use the lower ones on the end as it was too far into the floor space.
Here's the original setup in total:
Took off all the door and drawer fronts and used the Rustoleum cabinet restorer to paint them black and then polycrilic'ed all of them.
Took the wheels off the Harbor Freight tool chests and set them on a framework of 2x6's that I assembled on the floor. I then screwed a 2x6 onto the back wall behind the tool chests to support the back of the bench top.
At first I layed down 1/2" OSB and then glued the solid maple flooring T&G together and layed it on top of the OSB. I ran everything long for later angle cutting.
Thought the tops looked too thin, wanted more of a "beefy" look, so I simply got some 2x10's and laid them on top of the 1/2" OSB and put the maple T&G on top. Clamped it all together and them cut the angles to fit the blueprint cabinet in and cut the ends to length. Used a circular saw. Also added a cabinet height refrigerator.
Built an end cap and trimmed out the sides and back splash in 3" solid maple. Also built a frame for the blueprint cabinet out of 4x6's
Took apart the already painted lower cabinets that I decided not to use and used the sides as end panels for the island. Because they were shorter, I used a piece of the left over maple flooring and ripped to width to fit in that gap. Eventually painted that black as well.
Painted the blueprint cabinet wood base black and the tool chest wood base red.
Polyurethane on the tops, about 6 coats.
