What Happens When A Project Doesn't Work Out As Planned AKA My Scrap

Our current rental has a lack of cabinet and counter space, so attempting to make dinner and find room for food has become quite the activity in our home.
I will start of by admitting that this project was originally not intended to be a kitchen island, it just kind of happened! I've wanted a side table for my couch for quite a while, and my dad and I had made one for under my living room window a while ago, so I had thought that we could easily make one slightly bigger to put next to my couch. Well, instead of slightly bigger, it was a LOT bigger.
Working with scrap wood and attempting to figure out how to build something out of them comes with lots of unpredictability. By the time this table was almost done I was really concerned over this project until my mom told me that this table would be perfect for my kitchen. And thus, my kitchen island was born.
I would love to provide exact measurements and some building plans, but we just kind of "winged it" when we were building it. But if you'd like, here is what we used as a guideline to build the table.













We started off by cutting four 2x4s into three foot legs and pre-drilled two holes on both ends of the legs.





We then discussed how big I wanted the table, and being terrible at math, I gave my dad ridiculous too-large-for-a-side- table measurements. We cut two more 2x4s the same size as the legs and then cut two more 2x4s to measure 20 inches. These four additional pieces became the start of the frame to the top of the island.
We then began assembling. We took two of the legs and attached them at the top with one of the long top pieces and did the same with the other two legs.





We then took both pairs of legs and attached them together with two of the 20 inch size pieces.
Since we didn’t have any jigs or fancy tools to ensure everything stayed even we then cut two more scrap pieces to measure 15 inches and attached them to the bottom of the legs, about 6 inches from the bottom. This helped stabilize the piece and also supported the bottom shelf.





Check out the link below to see the rest of the tutorial!






Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/9591065/diy-kitchen-island-from-scrap-wood site