backwards

A while back--mid-April, I think--I acquired six hardwood chairs, two Kik-Steps, and a library book display stand at the campus library's surplus sale. The book display table, which I snagged for $5, I decided to turn into a kitchen island. I started on the project a while ago made pretty quick progress turning the old slanted display shelves on top into a shelf midway up the legs. Then I'd gotten bogged down, trying to decided what kind of top to use. I'd thought about tile, butcher block, and solid surface. But since I'd spent so little on the table itself, I wanted to finish the whole thing on the cheap. So yesterday I ordered a sheet of zinc, which is what old Hoosier cabinets are often finished with. It cost me $39 (and woulda only been $28 if they'd had the right size in stock), and I'll figure out how to screw it to a sheet of 1" plywood when it gets here. I figure the whole thing'll cost me under a hundred bucks.

Since I didn't take a picture of the table before I started tearing it apart, I went searching on the googs. Finally found this photo:


It came from the C.C. Mellow Memorial Library Big Furniture Sale page (they were asking $100 for it), and it was the only picture I could find of a Remington Rand book display table. Ha ha--it'll turn out to be the only rare antique I've got, and now I've gone and cut it up.