By Marla Jo Fisher
The Orange County Register
It really was a fairly ridiculous thing to do, considering I was flat broke until my tax refund arrived.
But I’d been yearning to build a breakfast bar in my little 1950s tract house since I bought it seven years ago. And, this spring, I figured out how to do it by recycling a lot of things I already had.
See, my small house had a big problem: a long, dinky galley kitchen that provided nowhere for my friends to sit and watch me cook.
I’d long harbored this idea that I could punch a hole through the wall between the kitchen and the living room and add a breakfast bar. It seemed like it could be done without spending a lot of money.
On the kitchen side of the wall, there was a set of upper and lower cabinets with a small counter between.
I didn’t want to lose the cabinets on the upper part of the wall that would be demolished, because I really need the storage space. So I decided to just move them to the other side, and put them underneath the new bar.
My biggest problem with this scenario was lack of capital.
Fortunately for me, my friend’s brother agreed to come over and help me build it, practically for gas money. I agreed to buy the supplies.
First step was to move electrical wiring — the most labor-intensive part of the job, actually. Luckily, my friend knew all about this. I suggest that you hire an electrician.
There were several outlets to be moved, including a light switch to the overhead kitchen lights that had to be relocated to another wall, requiring him to crawl up into the attic. Then, he added a switch for my new pendant lamps that would hang over the bar.
I’d bought a pair of these lamps on final clearance at Home Depot years before, for five bucks each, and stashed them in the garage against the day that I’d finally build my breakfast bar.
Then, we took down the upper wall cabinets before cutting a hole in the wall, creating a great new space now linking the kitchen and the living room.
We flipped the upper cabinets — which were now lower cabinets on the other side — and I was so happy to be able to reuse them now as the supports for the new breakfast bar.
The countertop for the new bar was a bit of a sticking point, since it was an irregular size due to the reuse of the kitchen cabinets underneath.
After running around to several stores and shopping online, I finally found a butcher block countertop premade and the right size at IKEA. It wasn’t sealed, but I liked the wood. So my friend Ana lent me her magic box full of recycled stains and sealers that she’d gotten at the county hazardous waste recycling center.
I was happy to save $50 by using them, and put down several coats of reddish stain, then polyurethane varnish over the top of that. The new countertop looked beautiful and rich, an asset to my home.
After installing the countertop, all that was left was to put barstools underneath it. This wasn’t hard, because I’d gone to the Habitat ReStore a few months earlier and bought some recycled ones for $5 each. They were waiting in my garage just for this moment.
Those particular barstools came from the Yard House, and were donated to Habitat for Humanity after the restaurant chain remodeled. They’re a little worn, but still have plenty of life in them.
Recently, I had a Realtor at my house to discuss other affairs, and I showed him my recycled breakfast bar. I estimate that wood, the countertop, electrical boxes and other supplies cost me around $600.
“You did a great job,” he told me. “You’ve added a lot to the value of your house now.”
Gee, that was nice to hear. Now maybe I’ll think about adding that second bathtub to the shack.
First, I have to keep an eye on the Habitat ReStore and see when it gets a donated bathtub that will work.
