Kitchen islands can be pricey, but they don't have to be. Almost anything can become one, as long as it's an appropriate height. Click below to see how file cabinets, dressers, card catalogs, antique counters, and lab tables can be transformed into kitchen furniture...
For more information on each of these projects, click through the links:
• 1 A kitchen island from ReadyMade is made of file cabinets and butcher block.
• 2 A card file kitchen island comes from Better Homes & Gardens DIY.
• 3 Also from Better Homes & Gardens DIY: back-to-back dressers.
• 4 Christy and John used an antique woodworker's table in their kitchen.
• 5 An idea from This Old House: a lab table repurposed in the kitchen.
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I like the red dresser with the flowers but not so crazy about the rest of them. Some are too small and some just not that great. Another option for a creative island can be a stylish dining table like this one by one of my favorite designers ever, Dufner Heights:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/19567/Connecticut-House-eclectic-kitchen-new-york
Oh man, I'm a sucker for repurposed kitchen islands. My fave of the bunch: the antique woodworker's table, though I'd want to add casters, if possible.
I love all of these! Especially the card catalog! I know they have talked about ours before, but we took an old kitchen cabinet that we got at an auction for $5 and refinished it into an island. We love it! See it here if you haven't already:
http://makemineeclectic.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/one-little-project-at-a-time/
http://makemineeclectic.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/counter-tops/