A Cutting Board + Kitchen Stool = A Table?

You may think I’ve completely gone off my rocker with this one, folks.

You see, we got a new bed last Fall. We went from queen to king, and when that happened, our large nightstands no longer fit. We basically have only one wall to place our bed, due to bathrooms and closets and all that good stuff. So I had to get new nightstands.

Sounds easy enough, right?

WRONG.

The wall space between my husband’s side of the bed and the bathroom is very tight. So it needed to be a thin table.

Sounds easy enough, right?

WRONG.

Again.

Because this beast of a bed we got is very tall. Like, I need a stepstool tall. And it is HARD to find a thin table, that’s also tall enough, that ALSO wouldn’t look dwarfy next to this monster bed.

Told you it wasn’t easy.

I had an aha moment and realized JUST the thing. I would make one of those awesome tree stump tables!! You know, where you sand an old tree stump and stain it and poly it to perfection? Google it – they’re gorge. I asked around and some family members and friends had stumps from trees they’d recently chopped down, but no pieces were tall enough. But my brother-in-law has a huge tree that needs to come down in the near future, so he told me he’ll get me a good ol’ chunk when the time comes, but in the meantime…my poor husband NEEDS A TABLE. He was seriously using the hamper to place his alarm clock on.

But what’s a girl to do when she’s got the perfect (FREE!) table waiting in a few months (ish), but needs a solution in the meantime?

Well, you know this wackadoodle (yours truly) will find a way. I looked around my house to see if I had anything tall enough…

I had a tall kitchen stool that was collecting dust in storage. Not even sure where this thing came from, but we’ve had it forever.

kitchen stool table

I had an old cutting board that I didn’t really need anymore…

Do you see where this is going?

I put the board on the stool and darn if it wasn’t THE PERFECT SIZE.

Bear with me, I’m about to show you a scary “before” shot:

kitchen stool table

So you can see the bathroom to the left, and the height of the bed here. (Picture a plank wall, with wall lamps, thick baseboard molding, some awesome bedding, and a glorious area rug, mmmmkay?)

I figured this could be just the solution until my “real nightstand” is ready.

So I painted the stool (Behr Prelude – same as my powder room)…

kitchen stool table

…and I took the board outside to sand down….

kitchen stool table

Gave it a couple coats of Minwax Special Walnut, followed by Minwax Wipe-On Poly for shine, and BOOM!

kitchen stool table

A table is born!

kitchen stool table

Now, I took these pics in my home office, since the bedroom is a complete show right now, but up against that plank wall it’ll sure look purdy one day soon;)

You might be asking yourself, did she attach the board to the stool? Doesn’t the board get knocked around? The answer is no and no. I made this back in October and it has yet to be knocked over even a little bit. But it’s in a spot that doesn’t exactly get knocked into, you know? And we’re hanging wall lights so it’s not like it’ll have a heavy lamp on it or anything. But yes, I would totally look into securing it somehow if it were anywhere else or the circumstances were different. For a kid’s room or a table that gets used constantly – I’d definitely secure it. For a temporary nightstand though, this will work. It holds my husband’s alarm clock and an ‘in the meantime’ little lamp like a champ! (A lot better than the wicker hamper did – haha!)

Also, the cutting board (it’s the $9 one from Ikea) has a lip for counters, which turned out being a nice coincidence – the lip hides the top of the stool, so all you see are legs.

kitchen stool table

So call me crazy, or call me MacGyver, but in the end, I got myself a free little nightstand! 😉

The lesson here, friends: search your house before you go shopping. You might even find yourself a table right under your very nose.

Comments

  1. Hey lady… It’s Jessica (formerly known as Stellar Junk Jessica) and I love your freebie solution. Still love reading your stuff. Keep on keepin’ on! Xo

    • JESS!!!!! OMG – this is THE weirdest – hand to God, I thought of you JUST YESTERDAY?!!!! How weird is that?!!! Was wondering how you and the kiddos are doing! Much love – thanks for keeping in touch! XO

  2. Adorable! Thank you for sharing!

  3. “…call me crazy, or call me MacGuyver…” BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

  4. Sherri S. says:

    Love this look! I pinned itnif course 😉

    Have a happy weekend!
    Sherri

  5. Lynn Haag says:

    Love this idea! I have two of those IKEA cutting boards and love them but would have never thought of this – you are so crafty! Can’t wait to see your new bedroom!

  6. Mary Vella says:

    was the round part of the stool taken out? How did you attach the board with glue?

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  1. […] End Table– Pair a cutting board with a kitchen stool and suddenly you have a stylish end or bedside table. […]

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