With another lucky auction find from earlier this month, I was able to create a very low cost, usable kitchen island. I bought 6 folding tables at a local school auction and they must have been cafeteria tables, with perfect laminated tops, just like kitchen counters! I bpurchased 3 six foot tables and 3 eight foot tables (for less than $40) and they are the sturdiest folding tables I ever encountered. I tried both sizes in my kitchen, but the six foot table definitely looked better. I scrubbed it completely and then bought a set of "bed-risers". By putting 4" bed-risers under table legs, the table becomes standard kitchen-counter height - a tick I learned when I volunteered at the PA farm show food court. To make the table look pretty - and hide all the food grade buckets with my flours and sugar storage - I sewed 4 simple curtain panels. Using 10 yards of 36" wide muslin, I was able to take the fabric lenght-wise, so there are no seams in the long panels. The 36" width was just enough to make a 2 inch seam on the top, to thread a curtain rod through, with a small ruffle above. To keep the curtain looking clean on the bottom, I also bought 2 yards of "homespun" fabric. I chose a checkered pattern - that way cutting the fabric into 6" wide strips went rather quickly...just had to follow the lines of the squares. The folding table had a wood base under the top, and we were able to attach brackets for the simple cafe rods on the short sides, keeping the curtain a good 2 inches back from the table edge. To make the curtain rods line up at the corner, we used wire and dry-wall screws, wrapping the wire tightly around the ends of the curtain rods and then twisting the wire around the screw. We also made wire supports in the middle of the long sides, to keep the rod from sagging. It took a few hours to sew the panels, but it was worth it!
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| Dressed-up for the holidays! |
Estimated Cost:
Used folding table: $7.00
Bed risers: $10.00
Curtain rods: $10.00
Fabric (using coupons and sales): $30.00
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