Don’t Tell the Landlord

My best friend recently moved into a rental house with her three young children and wanted a little help breaking out of her traditional mold and adding a few eclectic touches.  Taking her at her word, I waited until she wasn’t home one day to work a little magic.   After spending a good part of the day rearranging and fluffing the entire house, I turned my attention toward her really large and empty kitchen.  She needed an island.  Not being one to consider buying something expensive when I can be creative instead…I began my search.  I remembered seeing a large piece of wood in the basement and thought it would probably make a perfect top for the island.

As I was walking down to the basement to check out the wood, I spotted the base!  The landlord had left some junk in the basement, where it had lived for at least a century or so.  And there it sat in all its glory…and old metal rolling table/cart with nasty, grungy planks for a bottom shelf, and equally grungy castors - it was absolute PERFECTION!  So, I drug the piece of wood up the steps, followed by the metal table, then ran across the street to my house to get my handy-dandy Liquid Nails.  Well, actually I had a TON of cleaning to do before the gluing but I was a little excited. 

After an hour of cleaning and using every paper towel my friend had in the house, I was ready to make the landlord’s old metal table looked like an expensive piece from a specialty home store.  See if you agree (but please don’t tell the landlord…I sure hope it wasn’t an “heirloom”!).

Check out the cool greenish planks, complete with peeling paint and a patina you can't manufacture.

It's even a perfect height for a low stool.

These planks were BLACK before I started - any grunge left is not going anywhere!pretty close, huh? from Iron Accents

 

Pretty close, huh? Iron Accents Island

Country Living

 

SoMa Kitchen Island via Remodelista

 

 

I know – they’re all fabulous, but they have fabulous prices…hers was completely FREE! 

Now we have to find the perfect stools.  I spotted some locally a couple of weeks ago that had come from a dental lab circa 1956, similar to the ones in the Country Living image above – but they were ivory and not quite right.  Here are a few under consideration:

 

$89 and under from School Outfitters

 

$95 from Iron Accents

If I find some sitting on the side of the road somewhere or in the back of a Goodwill, I’ll let you know! 

By the way – the sofa didn’t make it to my garage – I thought I’d keep looking for one without the slashes in the cushions!

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