I Love Lamp: Barn Door Kitchen Island

Every year for the past six years, despite neither of us being religious, Steven and I have hosted a Seder. Good friends, good wine, a long story-- what's not to like?

Obviously we were extra psyched this year to break in our brand spankin' new, 99% finished kitchen with our pals. Since we had eleven folks total we figured we'd bring in some tables and chairs from the barn and set them up in our big open space BUT THEN our contractor surprised us with our barn door island!

Remember the barn door? Once upon a time it was from the barn (duh):

Then it lived hanging between the kitchen and the living room.

Until we got a quote for a custom cabinet island and said, "WHOA! NO WAY! What else do we have laying around here...?" and decided we should be make a giant island out of the barn door and use the 100 year old hemlock beams for legs that we found in the foundation during demo. 

We've made tables before, but because this one was so burly we put it entirely in the hands of the crew. They decided it would be best to wire scrub the whole thing, poly it, and add a skirt along the edges from other barn wood and we made it two inches taller than standard counter height because Steven's tall and hates having to bend way over to chop.

The thing is so damn big they had to wait to attach the legs until they brought it in the kitchen yesterday morning aaaaand ta-da!

It basically took an army to flip:

(Yes, I felt bad taking pictures as they all grunted but aren't you happy for the action shot??)

And now WE'RE IN LOVE.

It's enormous and luxurious and sturdy and simply the freaking coolest and I'm so happy with it! It just goes to show that sometimes the "creative", "budget friendly" solution winds up being the best solution after all.

And now, as happy as I am to be sitting here at this island typing this, it's time to get outside because it's finally, so damn warm and beautiful out. Welcome, spring. We missed ya!