Creative, Make-Shift Kitchen Island!

My lack of counter space was driving me NUTS.... I couldn't take it any longer!
I had to get a decent sized kitchen island but didn't want to spend more than a couple hundred bucks. So this is what I did:

My POOR hubby got dragged to all the junky stores in one day! Lol... Christmas Tree Shops, The Unfinished-Wood Store, and Ocean State Job Lot to see if we could find a temporary kitchen island or table of ANY kind. The problem we had though, was that within the next 6 months or so we planned on started a major kitchen renovation. So this temporary fix had to be a re-purposed or recycled piece that I could resell to a new home later.

So, here is what I did! After some serious convincing that it had potential, my husband agreed to buying this sad little laminate coffee table that we found at Ocean State Job Lot. My plan that I had convinced him would look great... was to build up the legs to counter height and then paint the whole thing a great color that would coordinate with our existing kitchen. Maybe even a coat of Poly so it would be durable and some trim on the legs to give it some not-so-handmade character. I was very optimistic I could make this work!

Here is what we used:

• Laminate Coffee Table from Ocean State Job Lot
• 4x4's from Home Depot
• 4 Huge Double-Sided Screws
• Smaller Square Trim
• Sand paper 
• Kilz Primer
• 1/2 Gallon of Paint
• Polyurethane
• Some serious elbow grease! :)

How we did it:
1. We started by measuring the height of our counter tops in the kitchen to decide what the height of the island should be.

2. My handyman then cut 4 (4x4s) to the height we wanted to prop the coffee table up.

3. We then screwed the legs onto the coffee table legs using these nifty large Double-Sided Screws.

4. We then used the smaller square trim to hide the seam where the existing coffee table met the 4x4s.
**(By the way - investing in a decent nail gun makes these projects go by WAY quicker!)

5. We also used 2 Layers of the small square trim to frame out the feet/legs of the island, so they had some weight to them and didn't LOOK like cheapo 4x4s! :)

Then, it took me a few weeks before I got the sanding (don't worry my handyman was giving me crap the whole time) ha! But, that certainly didn't stop me from using the island in the process to prepare a nice dinner for friends! Although, before they came over I definitely through a nice big table cloth over the whole thing. :)

5. Once the building was done - I started sanding. Man-o-man... this took a few hours longer than I expected! But I knew it was a very important step if I wanted to refinish the laminate properly. I used our Dewalt hand-sander and coarse sand paper to start and then switched to a finer paper once I got a good "scuff" into all the laminate. I also gave the new wood a light sanding too to smooth out the corners and any hard edges.

6. After thoroughly wiping the whole piece down with damp rag, it was time to Prime the entire table. Using a really good primer (such as Kilz) makes a world of a difference to ensure your paint will adhere well to your laminate veneer.

7. Letting the primer dry for a full 24 hours is highly recommended (especially when refinishing laminate (the scuffing and priming are SO important).

8. I selected a dolphin grayish/ blue color and painted 2 coats, allowing the 1st coat to dry over night. I choose to paint the entire Island with a paint brush, after really liking the "brushed" finish on the legs. which made for a textured finish that came out really nice. You could also use a roller if you want a flat matted finish with a more even tone.

9. At last the painting was done, and we applied one coat of Polyurethane and we were done!

10. We did give the Island about a full week to completely cure before using.

This whole project cost about $200, and making my kitchen that much more functional was priceless!
You just have to see the potential in the piece of the furniture, and hope like hell it will turn out great!

Update (6 mths later): I can't tell you how many friends and family have said what a nice table this is. Ha - they are always shocked when I tell them it was a coffee table that we bought at Job Lot!
We recently just completely our full kitchen renovation and installed a built in island- yay) and I am happy to say that I was able to sell this kitchen Island on Craigslist for $300 buck without much effort. Now if someone had only been selling one of these when I was looking we wouldn't have had to do all that work! ;)

Just remember if you can't find one you like for the price you like, DIY!