Sunday, August 21, 2011

Dumpster Butcher Block Makeover!

Okay, it is not a true butcher block, but this kitchen work table is made out of solid hunks o'wood, and I can cut on it, so that screams butcher block to me.

The story?  Well, we live in a college town, so everyone moves out all at the same time.  Our complex puts out a huge roll-off dumpster, and opens the side to that you can just walk in and dump your unwanted furniture (and trust me, these kids throw A LOT of perfectly good stuff away).  My husband discovered this beauty resting right on the end of the dumpster:


Wayyy too early 90's country fair for me.  However, my husband looked on the bottom and discovered that this work table was made by a local guy who charges $500-700 for a table like this.  And someone threw it away?  Yowsers!

Now, there was much work to be done.  The top of the table was very scuffed, and well, you see the paint job.  So the hubster got to work (I was mostly the creative director/supervisor on this project).  He got out some sandpaper and started sanding.  That didn't work.  So then he got out a heat gun.  That didn't work either.  So he got out a power sander.  No dice.  We eventually caved and got a soy-based earth-friendly paint remover, and then we saw some progress.  It was a week-long adventure.  Photos of the sanding extravaganza below:


So there was the sanded project.  Mr. S still couldn't get all the blue off, but I'd say he did pretty well!  So then it was time to paint and seal.  We used a food-safe sealer for the top, and some Valspar paint for the body.  We also painted the inside of the drawers with some free Glidden paint we got from a recent promotion.  The hubs said the Valspar paint was much easier to deal with and less toxic to breathe in.  We added a couple new drawer pulls, and voila!  A pretty new butcher block for the kitchen!







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