Project Kitchen Island

Ugly Bureau, front

Even uglier back

My house is what you might call vintage. Long in the tooth, if it had any teeth. Seasoned, perhaps, like a fine wine. Like a lot of older homes, it has a big kitchen. While not exactly a farm house - it's in town, in Augusta, and was in a row of homes even when it was built in 1888 - it is built in a farmhouse style: kitchen in an ell, so it doesn't heat up the rest of the house. As I said, it has a big kitchen (with a pantry! Yeah, you wanna be me but you can't be me.) But a lot of that space is wasted - just acreage that I have to cross between table, counter, sink and stove. The answer of course, is an island, but I get all balled up when I think about installing an island island: should it have electric? Should it have a dishwasher? Should it match my (painfully ugly) cabinets, and if not, do I have to redo all the cabinets or it will look stupid? What about the countertops? Everything spun out into a huge, overwhelming, and completely out-of-budget project.

And then we gt a truck.

There was a long chain of events leading to the truck, involving me stranded by the highway and a large puddle of motor oil in our driveway, but the short of it is, we got a truck! But when you get a truck, things happen.
One of the things that happened was my husband decided he wanted to bring home his mother's Wurlitzer organ. She doesn't play anymore, and he does, so it made sense...and now we have a truck, so...

The only place the organ would fit is in an alcove in our dining room currently occupied by the Ugliest Dresser in Maine. (That, BTW, would put it in the running for the national title. ) The Ugliest Dresser in Maine currently functions as sort of a sideboard on Thanksgiving, and a storage receptacle for junk the rest of the year. I was trying to figure out what the fate of the Ugliest Dresser in Maine might be, when it occurred to me: it's about the right height to be a kitchen workspace.  And about the right width for the space in the kitchen where my future island would go. Hmm and hmm.

A little googling, and I discover I am not the only one to have this brainstorm. What this dress needs is some beadboard wainscoting, a different (wider) top surface - I am thinking 3/4" plywood with an Ardex coating? And maybe a couple of stools?

So, for those of youwho enjoyed the Stair Project, watch this space: the Ugliest Dresser in Maine is about to become the Perfectly Acceptable Kitchen Island That Doesn't Cost a Mint!