Rescued and Repurposed- Dining Table to Butcherblock Island

I'm not sure if you remember my post in July about how my beautiful, eucalyptus exterior wood table top split in half after my umbrella blew over.  No? Check out what happened:

The table was waiting to be taken to the street.  I set it aside and told my husband that I needed his help to carry it out to the street the next evening.  That night, I had a crazy idea.  The table top was damaged, but the table base was in great condition.  The beautiful furniture grade legs were in near perfect shape.  Surely there was something I could do with it. We had talked about someday buying a butcher block table for the kitchen.  Why not use the base of the outdoor dining table to make one?  I didn't have anything to lose.  If it didn't work, I would just throw it out.

To my utter joy and amazement, it turned out more beautiful than I imagined. Here it is in all its glory:

  I consider this to be my best and favorite project to date. You might be asking,"how did you do it?" Let me show you.

First, I removed the damaged top from the base by unscrewing it.

Then, I unscrewed the corner braces and cut the two shortest sides down to make the table more narrow. The length was fine.

Once the new pieces were cut, I screwed the pieces back together.

In order to make the table taller, I purchased a long block of poplar and cut blocks to the height we needed (about 5") to make the table taller.  We had to cut a few inches off the bottom of the original legs so the transition to the new poplar feet would look more natural.  We also used the electric sander to round out the edges of the poplar blocks to make them look more furniture grade.

We used double ended screws (screws with two pointed ends) to attach the blocks to the bottom of the legs.  First, we drilled pilot holes in the center of the blocks and the bottoms of the legs.

Then, my hubby inserted the screw into the drill (where the bit goes) and screwed the top piece into the bottom of the table legs using the drill. At that point, it looked like this:

Finally, we screwed the blocks into the bottom of the legs.

For the butcher block top, I found a piece of numerar birch at IKEA that was the perfect size.  We didn't have to cut it at all!  After some butcher block oiling, we attached the butcher block to the base by using the existing screw holes in the bottom of the table that were used to attach the original table top.

The guy at Porter Paints helped me concoct a perfect paint match to the original table.  I primed and painted the new feet.  Then, the entire table got a new paint job so it would all match.

I am in love with this table.  When we have company and need a dance floor (our kitchen is great for dancing), we can move it out. You can see our stainless tile backsplash in the background of the picture below.  Along with the table, our kitchen is looking better than ever!

Plus, I've gained another surface to decorate! That can't ever be a bad thing, right?

Easier Than I Thought!


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