A tropical Island

Okay, tropical might be a stretch... But blissful? Peaceful? Those fit!
My island is COMPLETE. I know, go ahead and breathe that sigh of relief. You're sick of hearing about it, and frankly I'm sick of typing about it. So after this post, *zip*... no more talk about my stupid (yet beautiful!) island!

For those of you who haven't followed, a few months ago I picked up this little beaut on the side of the road. Yes, that's right. Pricetag: FREE


I had a wild hair to transform this into a kitchen island, which my kitchen desperately needed.

This was our kitchen before:


And this was a quickly simulated idea of what it should look like after *everything* is done


Obviously we aren't that far along yet (flooring is in the very distant future, and the bottom cabinets are only primed right now, not painted) but it gives you an idea of the goal.

Well, now atleast one piece of that goal is completed.


As you can see, we went with a butcher block countertop. While our price quotes varied wildly (Home Depot wanted a minimum of $2,500.00 for any wood counter top, no matter the size), we finally settled on a wooden Table Top (yes, you read that right) from Ikea for a rockin' good deal at only $79.00 + tax.



You'll notice the curtain I added. There was no door or drawers in that area previously, so I needed something to make it look finished. I installed a dowel to serve as a curtain rod and made a button-closure curtain to hang there, similar to the under-sick cabinet covers from old country kitchens.


The curtain can be easily slid from one side to the other to allow access to whatever I decide to store behind it, and can be unbuttoned to throw in the wash


When you factor in beadboard, hardware, the counter top, and the curtain, this island cost me $150.00 from start to finish to create... and the pride of knowing I did it myself is always a perk as well :)