Our New Kitchen Island

Well I did a post a couple of weeks ago that was a sneak peak at the finish Butcher Block Island my hubs and I just made and wanted to show you the piece by piece breakdown on how we did this. Its about 99% finished it still needs the trim piece to be attached to the front, but no one would know by looking at it.

Basically I wanted to update my old island from Ikea. Here is a pic:

Which was fine, but I wanted something I could put some barstools up to and let the kids sit while I make lunches/bake whatever…

So I did some brainstorming and found on Pinterest some great ideas on how to make an island out of a desk, cabinets, tables whatever.. and tried finding a desk to use. BUT, I forgot about the old cabinets down in the basement the previous owners left. DUH! So my hubs broke those apart and we decided to use the one with the perfect length (not too long but just big enough for our smaller kitchen)

Here is a picture before (in basement)

Lovely Right?? Well we decided to de-attach the left part of the cabinet and use that as the island. So to give some life again this is what we did:

1. Sanded the ….. out of it (see picture below)

2. Prime the …… out of it! My daughter helped out for a bit, she LOVES to paint but not for long because that primer stinks!

The cabinet was a little wobbly, so we cut wood to support the unit and place the blocks underneath (you can’t seem them).

3. Bought Bead Board and cut to size and attached to sides of cabinet

Here is another picture with the bead board on each side. The hubs did all the cutting thanks to my Father In Law (who let us borrow his awesome saws)!

4. Cut trim length and glue on with liquid glue and small nails.

5. Purchase your countertop- we went with Ikea’s Butcher block because we can drive there, it is about 10 minutes away, pick it up, cut it ourselves and screw it in (all in a sunday afternoon). And its only $130 for the size piece we wanted and that is great for Butcher Block!

6.Add hard ware (I did fill the old holes in with a wood filler and its very easy to do, just get a putty knife and scrape it on) to front of drawer/cabinet.

7. PAINT! Paint the entire unit glossy white and it will look awesome!!!

Here are some more After Pictures! We Love our new Island and the kids do too! We got some awesome barstools from Amazon and they have been great too! Let me know what ya’ll think?? Thanks xoxo E

Recycled Side Table 

I’ve had this side table for about 6 years and it was originally from my Mother-in-law and it was originally a tan color. I then spray painted them black but the black started to wear and didn’t look that great with our new Ikea Ektorp Couch so I decided to make a stencil to paint on top of the table.

To make a stencil you will need:
Black marker
Tracing paper
Construction or thick paper (I used paper to paint on)
Exacto knife
Box to cut on

First trace the design you want with the tracing paper and black marker.

I used scrap fabric from the curtains (old Duvet) I cut up and made into curtains, and
pillows.   Just trace the black marker around the design you would like to be a stencil. Then you will tape the tracing paper to the construction paper to cut out. Cut along the black lines and you will have a stencil.

Now I painted the black table a beige color (same color as my family room walls) and sanded a little bit to give it a milk paint sort of look. Once that dried, I taped my stencil to the table and used a light blue/green color to paint over, I moved the stencil and then taped it, then paint (repeat). And then moved the table back to the same spot next to the couch. Love it! Oh and I did use a poly to give it a nice shiny top coat, and since drinks usually go on this table, it will help protect it.

Here is the Before (Family room with black table):

Here are the After:

Make your own stencil side table