Throwing back to how I Transformed a Radio Stand into my Kitchen Island

Continuing on in our throwback series to our third post from September of 2015. This red kitchen island that I built out of my great grandpa’s radio stand will probably always be one of the most popular posts here on Grandma’s house DIY. I just loved how it turned out! It was my favorite place to perch every morning before work and every night when I came home for many years. Initially it was a little too tall so I fixed that, then the top needed some adjusting, so I fixed that too. The most recent addition was a lace doily to replace the old fabric and I think it turned out so pretty.

Its pretty amazing to read back and realize how much has changed here at Grandma’s house! Here is the original post:

Back when I tackled the renovation I always knew what I wanted in my kitchen – a red kitchen island with a butcher block top on wheels but I’m not always the sharpest tool in the shed, sometimes it takes awhile for me to see what is staring me directly in the face. My great grandpa’s radio stand made me the perfect kitchen island!

(8/1/2019 A lot has changed in my life since this post came out four years ago. I just finished remodeling my entire kitchen and this island got a transformation of its own! I lowered it and remade the base and bottom shelf – make sure and check out the entire remodel.)

My mom and I pulled this radio stand out of the old play house (along with a pile of other furniture) and I really didn’t know what to do with it. I set it aside and got to work on the many other pieces I already had until I literally dwindled down to it.

I even thought about giving it away as I just couldn’t figure out how to make it functional. It was very cool and rather pretty though it did have some veneer cracking and missing on the front of it (as you can see in the before) so I had planned to probably paint it regardless.

But if you stand it against a wall it is either useless as a shelf or you have to face the prettiest part of the whole piece to the wall. I just couldn’t figure out how to use it in a functional way so I put it out of my mind.

Meanwhile, I knew all along I wanted a butcher block red kitchen island and I have also always wanted a book shelf in my kitchen for all of my recipe books and things so I got to work designing an island.

It wasn’t very big and it was basically a small bookshelf on wheels. I didn’t want to build it (I’m not a builder, I’m a recycler) so I was planning on probably finding something at the salvage yard. 

It took me so long to finally put two and two together *facepalm*. Not only was this radio stand almost exactly the same as I was designing, it’s better because it looks amazing from every angle. The very reason I was having so much trouble figuring out a function for it is what literally makes it perfect as my red kitchen island because now you can see it from every angle and use it too.

(Funny how things work out!)

When I painted it I taped up the “fabric” to keep it its original gold color though you can see it looks kinda stained… I may decide to paint that a separate color at some point. I put two coats of primer on it, three coats of paint and then two coats of poly acrylic, which I also put on the fabric (front and back) to help protect it. My biggest worry about it is that it was never very sturdy.

(I had a butcher block island once that consisted of two cabinets screwed together that I put feet on and once when I tried to move it myself one of the feet caved right over – I didn’t want that to happen again!)

I cut two 2x4s to set it on and screwed up through them into each leg as carefully as I could. This was a bit tense as I had to be perfectly straight or the screw would have burst out the side of one of those pretty legs.

Then I added big castors so it has no reason to lean when it is pushed, it will just roll. On top of that I added slats of oak I had left over from my counter tops that I covered the bottom with to add even more support.

It is surprisingly sturdy now and rolls so easily, when I want my kitchen dance floor I just slide it out of the way. I’m still looking for stools and I can see myself, every winter from now on, sitting at my island in front of the fire after work, perhaps sipping tea and reading from one of my cook books 🙂

Check out my tutorial How to: Build your own butcher block!