Because I live in a land where backpacks, purses, viola, suitcase-sized-5th-grade-zipper-binder-almost-as-large-as-said-5th-grader, and other various & sundry items litter the kitchen table and the bar stools and the breakfast bar, I need some sort of storage solution.

We do have a coat closet with a shelf for each person, however, that is MILES away from the kitchen table! Well, probably only 12-20 steps away, depending on your size, but it sure seems like miles!

So, when blogger Ruth from A Trip to Holland came up with a backpack storage solution I was inspired, but still a little stumped.

Then I remembered the butcher block style grocery display counter tops that I have had sitting in my garage for a couple of years.

Got them for free from the grocery where my ex-husband works, and I’ve been contemplating how to use them for a couple of years.  Finally figured something out.

So, I purchased 4 legs & metal brackets to attach the legs…

First I drilled some pilot holes.  I marked the drill bit with tape to ensure that I didn’t drill through the wood.

Then screwed in the metal brackets…

Then I stained the legs…

When the stain was dry, I screwed the legs into the brackets, and voila!

A great looking place for all of that after school miscellany!

The only drawback with this project was that it wasn’t as cheap as I thought it would be.  The butcher block was free, but the legs were $4.88 each, and the brackets were $2.95 each, plus the stain was $4.95.  So it ended up costing around $36, which is more than I would have preferred to spend.

But it’s adorable, isn’t it?

I’m showing off this great bench at Funky Junk Interiors.