The Old Kitchen

Our old kitchen was not great. You can actually see a picture of a little bit of it here. One thing that WAS good though, was the Oak Butcherblock worktops.

We recently got it replaced with a nice new kitchen: everything is better: colour, space, design, units etc. But I asked the guys who did it to leave me with the old worktop as I Had Plans For It: Recyled Tables!

Technique

There’s a label on the back on one of the slabs which appears to date them to 2008, so these have had 18 years of kitchen use. You could tell, some of them were quite darkened with obvious ring stains and suchlike.

I used my table saw to chop them into table-sized slabs. I had to get Nicola to help, as the slabs are heavy.

Then just a bit of sanding with a random orbital sander.

You can use the same tool to quickly put a nice bevel on the edges.

Finally, you need to oil them with some suitable oil, I use Ronseal Worktop Oil.

The Breakfast Bar

This was the first table I made: pretty straightforward. I bought the legs from The Hairpin Leg Company. The legs are solid welded steel with a transparent coating: not cheap, but very robust.

The Avocado Table

Currently my Avocado plant lives on here. Same technique, only this was the most stained/abused bit from right by the sink (lots of pot stains and blackening). However, its come up a treat! I didn’t expect to be able to rescue it at all given its original state.

Legs are cheaper “hairpin” style legs from Amazon; they’re welded steel tubes. Not nearly as solid feeling as the Hairpin Leg company, but they work well enough.

The Cinema Room Table

This is a table in the cinema room for occasional meals. Legs here are ultra cheap £3 ones from Ikea: they work, but they feel a bit tinny. At some point I want to upgrade them to something much nicer.

The Future

I still have a whole load of spare worktop slabs to use!