1 Step Easy Kitchen Island
If you are lucky enough to have an eat-in kitchen but find the table not very functional while you’re cooking around it and chairs. Make it an island! Easy peasy simple style. Just add bed risers under each leg used to raise a college dorm bed. At first, we had a butcher block table from Ikea in the kitchen for a long time. It seemed like we could use it for cooking, etc. But it turned out to be a nuisance in a heavy traffic area with its sharp corners, we all were always hurting ourselves.
The Butcher Block Table
Then low and behold we switched it out for our fancy french provincial worn-out oval-shaped table. Added the risers and now we have an awesome island! I bought a few red tractor seat stools on amazon and thought we were good to go. Beware the stools didn’t come with footrests, hence the affordable price. The red stools proved hazardous for anyone who wanted to live. We were compelled to replace them with industrial chairs from the Tuesday Morning store. It just so happened they had the splotch of chartreuse paint on them matching the project. Before long I will have hoof-shaped canvas covers for the risers.
Update: The Tuesday Morning by our house has closed, a victim of the pandemic. I will miss it. It was too easy to shop there for gifts and the best stationery. I ended up buying four of the pegboard rolling gorilla shelves, two for the art studio garage and two for YES, a new storage unit, which has changed our lives for the better. Pros and Cons of having a storage unit could go on forever and the pros win.
All this time later the easy renovations I made for the kitchen have proven lasting. This was done a few years ago when I made the backsplash, chalkboard wall, and painted the counters, but we have moved the stools to the backyard cocktail table and put the butcher block table back in the space against the wall, and raised the table an extra couple inches by adding another riser to each leg, they have two now and the height is perfect.
The only thing I would change about the kitchen now is well… so much. The good news is our landlord has agreed to replace the stove and hood because the whole unit has completely broken. These poor landlords really do not have a choice.
So as the perfect tenets we are we will buy it ourselves and deduct it from the rent. We have one picked out. The only caveat is getting a new wall oven to boot. Ours is kind of broken but still barely functional. We feel all three should be replaced together. So we’ll see?
The oval table still has not been painted as I had planned but we have it in our great room which has an area almost changing by the seasons for a dining room. We did get six new trendy chairs to go around it. I’ll add the Amazon link here. I love them although they have to get tightened every so often when a screw just falls out. Sound familiar?
Next, paint the patina out of the table with a glossy sign and paint a terra cotta color.
