How Fixer To Fabulous Turned A Farmhouse Table Into An Epic Kitchen Island

Farmhouse tables have a very distinct look; they're typically quite large and have a thick wood top with hand-carved legs. If you want to transform a farmhouse table into a kitchen island, you could learn a thing or two from Dave and Jenny Marrs, hosts of HGTV's "Fixer To Fabulous." In Season 3, Episode 10, Dave builds a wooden farmhouse table to use as an island in homeowner Kimberly's kitchen, and he adds a few specific features to make it extremely functional.

To begin, he raises the height of the piece. "We're going to make it island height, so we're going to kick it up from a standard 30-inch table to 36 inches," Dave says, per Realtor.com. He also constructs it out of the right materials. "I'm going to make this island look like an old farm table, which would have been built out of fir or pine, something that you would see in a farm." The top of the piece is butcher block, which makes preparing food extra simple. "Jenny wanted that quintessential farmhouse island, like the butcher block where you use it and you cut on it and you enjoy it," Dave tells Kimberly (via HGTV). Finally, he includes three small drawers on one side, which adds some storage space as well. 

Because this farmhouse kitchen table doesn't have much built-in storage, it's not as functional as the typical island, which usually has cabinets underneath. Because of this, Dave and Jenny Marrs include plenty of storage space in Kimberly's kitchen by installing a full wall of cabinets and drawers. They also find ideal spaces in the rest of the kitchen for all the appliances and the sink since these features can't be located on the island.

Another issue you may come across when making a farmhouse table into an island is that it might not feel fully integrated into your space. Sometimes, it can appear as though it doesn't belong and should have been located in the dining room instead. To get around this, Dave and Jenny surround two of the sides with tall benches and install two light fixtures above the wooden surface. "The handmade light fixtures add warmth and character to the kitchen while the big, butcher block island Dave built looks like a beautiful old piece of furniture," Jenny writes on their blog, Dave & Jenny Marrs.