barn kitchen diy part 2

Many of you recognized the new item in my mother's kitchen from the first diy. She designed and built a removable table extension for her "dining" bar. To fully appreciate this project, I need to give you a little background. My mother's little barn home doesn't have a lot of square footage. The kitchen also performs triple duty as living and dining room. One of its most prominent features is the simple bar made from a salvaged plank and mismatched vintage brackets. Here are several photos of it from past tours. As much as we love it, my mother is often feeding four extra people: my family. She also loves hosting casual dinners with friends. A bar, facing a wall (no matter how cool that wall is), isn't very conducive to conversation. For the last year and a half we've hauled out a card table and chairs for all of us. It's a lovely wooden set from the 40's, but it's really heavy and a hassle. So my mother has been dreaming... and scheming of a solution that would afford her space most of the time, but seating when needed. She always says "there is a solution to everything". Although I was her soundboard, she really did this one solo, using mostly very inexpensive and accessible materials from a home improvement store.

Here are some of details:

• custom metal sliders are permanently attached under the bar to hold the weight of one side of the table.
  

• Next to those sliders are large eyehooks.
  
• The table top is just a board painted on the top with latch locks attached on the underside that meets the bar. On the opposite side, a flange is bolted in the center. A galvanized pipe screws right in and acts as a table leg. A flange at the bottom stabilizes it.
  
• When you want to dismantle it, the leg unscrews and the table stores flat!

Yes, I'm proud of what a genius my mother is! This might sound silly, but I bet you are, too! We tossed around some different color ideas and both decided black was just right. It matches the side of the fridge, the marmoleum floors and the new chalkboard pantry door. We ended up using the leftover chalkboard paint... which gives us some fun options for entertaining the kids while we (make that my mom) cook... or teaching proper table settings, etc. Because it's paint on wood, there are no chances of that awful screech of fingernails on slate. Using a damp eraser means no dust. But mostly we just keep it blank...

We've already had some amazing dinners on it... I've even slipped over for a quiet breakfast (above).