Living With Antique Furniture, A Special Kitchen Island

I had promised to touch on some of the other items we have accumulated around our house. The real prize is a wood-workers workbench sitting in our kitchen.

When we looked at the house we bought about nine years ago, the owners had what they called an Amish bread table in the center of the kitchen floor. It filled the space but sat too low to be useful as counter top.

After moving in, the need for a replacement was added to our clipboard list of needs, along with the dimensions of the floor space it would occupy. And our search started.

It turned into more of a task than I first imagined. We searched all over Southern Wisconsin. Many items were looked over with nothing just right.

One item of interest was a laboratory work table, with gas plumbing for a Bunsen burner hook-up. Nice and chromed, but the black material of the top seemed somewhat stark for the room, but close to acceptable as its length, width and height were perfect.
Then one Sunday afternoon we went to one of our favorite antique stores in Gurnee, Ill.

The Gurnee Antique Mall.

http://www.gurneeantiquecenter.com/index.shtml

Just off Highway I-94, south from Kenosha, Wisconsin. And there it was, an antique wood workers bench, bright and sparkling with fresh shellac. Its price was a bit of a shock, so when we left, it was still sitting there.
Our house took two minutes to decide to buy, the workbench needed pondering.

Luck beats skill every time.

It’s a month later and we are still trying to decide if the investment in an old work bench was worth the money, also checking on new counters and cabinets for reference.

We headed out one early Saturday morning to an auction along Lake Michigan, just North of Kohler, WI. Sitting on the grounds waiting to be sold were not one but two work benches. WOW a bonanza.
Sitting restlessly thru many items, the first bench came up for auction. It was probably from a school wood workers class. It was a small piece, most likely from the 1920s and it was sized right to fit in almost anywhere, but small for our needs. The bidding was hot, and it went for a great deal more than I had expected, but I was starting to justify the price for the bench we had seen at Gurnee, and was sure I would be out-bid.

The larger one, still waiting to be auctioned was older, probably made before the turn of the century and better constructed than the one we had seen in Illinois.
And so we continued to patiently wait.
Finally the large one comes up for bid. The bid call starting at a modest $400, – “300” – “200”, “Two Hundred – anyone Two”, then the auctioneer called “One, One Hundred” , I have One”, My hand was up at “One”, but the auctioneer had pointed to another and called “One”, He turned to me and shouted “One Fifty”. And since my hand remained up and the other bidder dropped her hand when I bid and no one bid the “Two Hundred” The item was mine.
Wifey was sure it would not fit in our mini-van, or that we could not lift it. But with help from the auction crew, we removed the legs and carried the top into the van.
Once home, we took a look at our prize, complete with two vices, one with a wooden handle in bad repair, a great wood shaving trough at back, square peg holes where wooden “dogs” were installed to hold long pieces of wood for planing. Wood wedges that held the leg braces firmly in place. It measured 86″ long by 34″ wide complete with vices and 33″ tall. The top is 78″ long by 24″ wide.

Beautiful dovetailing on the vices and twenty layers of multicolored paint splashed over the wooden top. What a challenge for wifey to get that removed before adding about four layers of shellac finish.

It’s now a thing of beauty with lots of character in the form of tool scratches, hammer dents and chisel gauges. I added a wire mesh shelf on the leg cross braces for cooking and serving pots as well as a drawer.

That piece was purchased many years before and never used. It’s a metal cash drawer that now holds our spreading knives and serving forks for hors d’ oeuvres.

It serves as our cooking work island. During gatherings it becomes a serving table with everyone crowded around and nibbling on their favorite treat. Cracker trays sit in the shavings trough, platters and hot serving dishes sit on top, towels hang from the vice handles, and utensils rest in the square peg holes.

The shaving trough has another purpose as well. When the grand kids come over, the slanted ends become launching pads for Tootsie Toy or Hot Wheel cars to race from end to end.

Our family, friends, neighbors and visitors all comment on the piece, it’s so unique and so useful, and we love it.