DIY Kitchen Island From A Lawyer’s Desk

I snagged an old lawyer’s desk made of real wood that is SUPER large for only $75 including delivery off Craigslist. Although this desk is not my style, I saw its potential to transform it into a functional DIY kitchen island for our home. Be sure to scroll to the bottom to watch the video! 🙂

Old wood lawyer's desk that gets transformed into kitchen island!

For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links. Read my disclosures and policies here.

I’ll walk you through step by step what I did in my video tutorial at the bottom of this post – but here’s an overview.

Replace Legs

In order to change the desk height of 30″ to a counter height of 34,” I needed to remove the legs and build new ones. I constructed legs from 2 x 4’s and attached them using my Kreg Jig and screws.

Build simple, taller legs to change desk height to counter height

Paint

The next thing I did was paint the whole piece. I started out painting it with black chalk paint that matched what the previous owner’s of our house painted the kitchen cabinets. With this paint I didn’t need to use a primer, but when the finish dried I wasn’t happy with its appearance. It was too matte and it showed many imperfections. So later I went over it again with Rust-Oleum’s semi-gloss black and was much happier.

Transforming old lawyer's desk into a DIY kitchen island

Create Storage In The Middle

I unscrewed the track for the middle drawer and moved it to the middle of the center cavity. This would work as a pull out drawer for the middle storage space. I added a piece of 1/2 thick birch plywood to the bottom of this cavity and another as its door.

Add storage to the center cavity of desk to transform it into DIY kitchen island

Countertop

The top that came with this lawyer’s desk was very large, but not quite as large as I would have liked. In order for this DIY kitchen island to fit to scale with our space and the pendant lights we chose above, I built a new countertop. I found three closet doors on clearance for only $10 a piece! One I had to cut down to add between the other two making the countertop the right width for a 10 inch overhang on three sides of the island. I secured the countertop to the desk using my favorite wood glue, screws, and brackets for support on the overhang. Then I applied four coats of polycrylic on top to make sure the finish was scrubbable and stain resistant.

Make a DIY kitchen island countertop for only $30 using a surprising material...

Finishing Touches

I installed bar pulls from Liberty Hardware to match the hardware on my existing kitchen cabinets. I also added a magnetic latch to the bottom of the center door.

DIY Kitchen Island idea - turn a desk into an island and use all those drawers!! New countertop was made from old closet doors. This furniture makeover is brilliant!

DIY Kitchen Island

Desk turned kitchen island DIY furniture makeover! What an amazing transformation - this modern black island used to be so ugly - now it's gorgeous!!

Oh man, now that everything is finally said and done, I love it! The drawers offer so much storage and the central cavity holds all the appliances/large pots I used infrequently.

Black cabinetry white accented kitchen modern style old farmhouse update makeover

Since I poly-ed the countertop of the island with so many layers, it’s actually durable. We have had blueberries squashed on it, juice spilt on it, and hot things set on it without any issues! It behaves a lot like a laminate countertop to me.

Little boy sitting at the kitchen island
One of the culprits right here…
Modern farmhouse kitchen style black cabinets, wood counters, sliding barn door, chrome hardware

I love the “cutting boards” on both sides that pull out – they get so much use! They were originally meant as extra work space for the person sitting at the desk. Seriously so serendipitous!

Desk to DIY Kitchen Island Makeover amazing furniture transformation! Modern farmhouse black and white kitchen

I hope you’re impressed with how I reimagined and repurposed this wood desk. If you would, I’d be honored if you pinned this idea to your Pinterest! 🙂

Oh and I almost forgot!! Here’s the video:

Signature welcome to the woods
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin

9 Replies to “DIY Kitchen Island From A Lawyer’s Desk”

  1. Wow this is a very impressive do-over. Love what you did with an old desk. So much inspiration now that spring is here Thanks so much for sharing

    1. I have 1 of these desk along with 2 file cabinets im going to do something along this line with them but my kitchen sink will go in the center.

  2. I love the creativeness of this for adding an island to your kitchen! I don’t have one but my husband and I are re-doing our kitchen here pretty quick and so I’m of course searching for fun ideas! You mentioned the first attempt at painting it didn’t go very smooth? Would you suggest hiring that part out in the future or was it not too bad to have to repaint it?

    1. Hey Mia!
      I just thought the chalk paint product was not the right thing for me to use in black on something that gets used so frequently like kitchen cabinets. So I would never hire it out, I just picked a more durable finish (semigloss enamel paint) and just repainted it quick! I hope that helps. Best of luck to you as you begin your big kitchen remodel!
      Melissa

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *