Mine is cherry beadboard stained the same color as the cabinets. I have the same thing on the back of my bookcase.

acoreana, mine is the same maple used to make my cabinets. I have no scuff marks and I wonder if maybe it's because the area of overhang is fairly deep so people don't hit their shoes against the wood?

Sky

Thank you both :)

Here's a pic of one I found googling "back of island":

{{!gwi}}

Looks like panels matching the cabs.

I'll post more as I find'm in case anyone else is making the same decision.

like the other posters, we have a piece of beadboard stained to match our cabinets (we ordered it through the cabinet company so the stain is exact)

We've got door panels.

Ours match the cabinets too. Forgive the white spots on this picture...it's construction dust.

we have the door panels. here's a pic :

oooooo, beautiful kitchens!

Will be going over these w/ Mom @ some point this weekend, thanks very much.

weedyacres, if you happen to pop back into this thread would you mind letting me know the details on your cabs - I'm pretty sure that's the look she's leaning towards. If not I'll try the FKB :).

Wait...I just realized...that was the dyi I had been following and then never got back to see the end result! WOW! Great job! & a belated congrats!

I don't know if you have kids, but my island also has door panels, with a twist. Beneeth the door panels is a flat panel of the same cherry, and when you open the doors you will see that they hide a chalkboard. Beneeth this is a toe kick drawer for chalk :) My 2 year old will be in heaven drawing out of the way while we cook dinner and when we don't want to see his "art" we can just close the doors.

I'm the odd man out - mine's tiled with tumbled marble which matches the backsplash. If you wear shoes in the house, the tile will stand up to kicking and accidental knocks a lot better than wood.

We had 6" deep cabinets built for island. It is 24" cabinets on one side and 6" on the other. We use them for cans, oils, coffee pods, etc.

The back of my island has 6 doors. Behind each door is storage with adjustable shelves. The storage is about 10" deep. My island will be stained. I hope that one benefit of staining is that it will be more forgiving of shoe scuff marks than paint.

Good luck!
try_hard