Desk Repurposed To Kitchen Island

Since we moved into this house in July of 2009 I have really wanted a kitchen island, but the ones I found were either ridiculously expensive, too small for our space, or really ugly tablesonwheels type contraptions. I knew I wanted something big-ish, because we have a relatively large area to fill, and I knew I didn’t want the regular cabinet-look that so many islands have. 

I had a little time off after the holidays and when I ran across these two blogs featuring a couple ladies who had made their own islands – My Repurposed Life & My Cottage Charm – I was inspired to embark on a DIY Kitchen Island Project (despite my complete lack of home improvement tools and/or knowledge). 

It basically begged for my love.

My skeptical wonderful husband thought I had lost my mind when I called him from Goodwill and told him I had just bought this desk and would he come pick it up for me. He begrudgingly agreed in attempts not to stifle my creativity (I have to admit, I was pretty sure I had gone insane as well….did I mention we don’t even own an electric drill at this point??….yah….can you see how this might not turn out so fabulously?). 

I made a trip to Lowe’s and got the items I needed to start my project, while I was there I decided to buy myself a random orbital sander and the hubby decided to buy an electric drill, this ended up being a necessity (uh, duh?!).

I took all the drawers out and assessed the paint situation, which appeared to be a whole-fricken-lot of thick, brown paint slopped onto a coat of white and a coat of primer. This called for more serious measures than my random orbital sander.







This stuff smelled RANK and it looked very similar to a substance I had to gather in saran wrap and do cell counts on in the allergy clinic I used to work at (yes, I made people blow their disgusting snot into a piece of plastic wrap and put it under microscopes to assess – I actually think it’s pretty cool, stop judging me).

               
          This is where, he later told me, my husband walked in the
          garage and decided the desk would either stay like this
          in the garage forever or end up looking horrid in our kitchen.

I finally got most of the paint off, sanded the areas that would show and painted everything with a coat of primer. 

I added an MDF board as the base and attached four wooden legs to get it to the height I wanted. 


This is where I stopped taking in-process pictures. Oops (and that is why I’m not a DIY blogger). Here’s a run-down of what I did:

-Nailed on primed & painted bead board panels to ends and back

-Added Corner Moulding to give cohesive look
-Gave everything one more coat of Valspar Antique White
-Stained a piece of solid pine with Minwax Golden Oak
-Coated the top with 3,000 coats of Minwax Polycrylic
-Fitted the top and screwed on (with help of wonderful husband)
-Replaced hardware on drawers
               
     This would be the back of the desk. 
Hooks from Hobby Lobby (1/2 Price!) to hold rolling pin.
There will be an oak towel rack here, but I want to paint it to match
the island and I haven’t gotten around to it. Use your imaginations.
Hope you still have your imagination hat on, friends. Remember when I mentioned our lack of all things tool-related? Well, that includes a saw. On the other side of the island I plan to add a shelf and cabinet door but, since it would take me approximately 12 years to use our hand saw to cut out my shelf, I am waiting until my dad can come down and help me.  Also, the area where I want a door has strange dimensions, so I’m going to see if I can recruit him to help me with that, too. He’s pretty awesome at that kind of stuff, so hopefully he won’t mind. 🙂



I had an absolute blast with this project and I can’t wait to do something else! Thanks so much to My Repurposed Life and My Cottage Charm for their inspiration and help!!