Look! Pimp My Crate & Barrel Ride

Upgrade. We were looking for a perfect understated console for a client that would separate his dining room from a sitting area in what is a very open plan loft space. We could find nothing that we liked. We looked all over, NYC, the Hamptons and online.

In a spurt of inspiration we went back to basics and decided to just look at Crate & Barrel. We found the Catherine Console. It was perfectly shaped, simple and not a bad price ($700), but it was too bland for this upscale apartment...

No problem. We found some Zebra Wood, ripped the existing top off and put the beautifully grained Zebra on top. Joe Everett, the carpenter, did a great job.

True, with all this work the price rose, but it just points out what you can do if you are willing to alter good basics such as you find at the chain stores. MGR
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Comments (8)

The Zebra wood top looks gorgeous. What was your source for the new top?

posted by jimkk on 2005-03-23 11:03:00

Yum! Zebra wood is so beautiful...

posted by mary on 2005-03-23 11:09:04

nice photo!

posted by MJ on 2005-03-23 11:12:18

I am big fan of customizing budget pieces of anything to achieve the look you want. So, well done! And thanks for the inspiration. On another note, the scale of the table relative to the room and purpose as a functioning room divider seems to be off. Is there work left to be done?

posted by Deepa on 2005-03-23 12:29:12

I hate to be the naysayer, but.... I just don't like this. It looks like a plain old console table with a different top on it, not like an integrated, well-thought-out, designed piece of furniture. Maybe if you'd beveled the edges of the zebra wood or made the top different somehow... to me it looks like you just slapped a piece of very fancy butcherblock on some table legs. Very unfinished IMHO.

posted by HoHum on 2005-03-23 13:35:33

Can I just say that I love the title of this piece? Very clever.

posted by x on 2005-03-24 13:52:13

Tricked up Crate & Barrel. Gotta love it!

I love the idea here that you can take something from a source like C&B (or anywhere) and make it your own. For the record, I love the end result, but, HoHum, I think the lesson/process is the point...

posted by patrick (the other one) on 2005-03-25 15:16:03

Love this piece and the thought behind it...

We recently cut a piece of laminate (that coordinates with our existing kitchen countertops)for our free-standing kitchen island (plain birch from Catskill Craftsmen) and now it looks great and functions better than the original butcher block top. We gained more than 7 sq feet of useable counterspace and it cost $12 to do!

posted by Laurie on 2005-03-26 14:52:21