Timberlake Island

I'm joining up with Jenny Matlock for Rainbow Summer School
This week's color is Yellow!


Come on over to Between Naps On The Porch for Susan's weekly extravaganza!

It's time for Metamorphosis Monday!

I'm joining in on Saturday Night Special over at Funky Junk Interiors with a makeover that has been in my mind for the last three years.  I've finally done it!


I'll also be linking up to Furniture Feature Friday over at Mustard Seed Creations
with one of my all time favorite pieces of furniture.

Timberlake Island is a wonderful free standing kitchen piece I've had for about twenty years.

Made by Bob Timberlake, it has been in the kitchens of our last three homes, as well as spending

a few years in my daughter's kitchen and a few years in storage because it never really worked in

our last house.  Here it was circa 1990 in our house on the water in Marin.

And as it appeared in one of the positions it has held in my current kitchen.
I have several free standing pieces that I use in the kitchen and I rearrange
them frequently.  The large stainless prep table has moved to the greenhouse
recently, as it was a catch-all for "stuff" and wasn't being used as a prep table. :-)

The wood island is extremely heavy even when empty. Each side has 4 large drawers and two small drawers, plus a plate rail on either end.  It also has a wonderful butcher block top that has been refinished twice in its 20 year lifetime.  I refinished the butcher block 3 years ago shortly before we moved to this new house and it has taken me all this time to figure out how I wanted to refinish the base.

Considering paint colors.

My favorite outdoor green was too green.

My favorite neutral "Fossil" was too gray.

So my final choice was my new favorite "Strawflower"

A sea of drawers, some primed and some with a first coat of Strawflower

I chose to wash the base with lacquer thinner, rather than try to strip it completely or sand it, which would have been difficult with all its crevices and inaccessible places. The butcher block

top was bleached with a solution of Chlorox and water, thoroughly dried and then covered in paper and taped up.

And the paint went on.

More paint

And a coat of clear sealer before I brought it back inside.

It was positively glowing in the bright afternoon sunshine.

The spacer panels in the fronts of the large drawers were still the original finish, so the

next step was to test out some ideas I had for painting them and doing something decorative to them. The glass front panels also needed to be reinstalled.  I won't be putting the beans, peppers, pasta back in the drawer fronts ...... it takes constant vigilance to make sure creepy crawlies don't make their homes in the bin fronts.


And here is the finished product.  I'm liking it so much better, much lighter and brighter.
It's like having a whole new piece of furniture! The butcher block top received a heavy coat
of mineral oil and will probably need another in a week or so.

EDIT 7/14/10:
I received a number of questions on the stencil I used.  It is a portion of
the larger stencil I used on my kitchen walls, although I used more intense
colors on the island rather than the muted colors I chose for the walls in the kitchen.
I also did some freehand embellishment to give it a more rustic look.
Originally I had planned to sand the wall stencils to give them some "age", but as it
turned out I liked them just the way they were. :-)

So that's one more thing I can mark off on my summer TO DO list.


Thanks for coming by for my Saturday Night Special and Furniture Feature Friday!