AND a microwave cart!

That's RIGHT!  The kitchen island was NOT enough.  We went ahead and made a microwave cart!  We used pieces of wine boxes and the whole wine boxes for holding things (potatoes and onions and stuff!)  Woohoo! We're pretty awesome!  I plan on staining it, but I just wanted to share as soon as I could!

Here's the frame:

And BAM!  Awesome:

And here it is, in use:

The final reveal!

So, Eleni and I decided that we needed a kitchen island.  After scouring the internet, we realized that the size we wanted was going to be way too expensive.  So!  We put some roof racks on my 1990 Toyota Camry, (yah, that's right!) we picked up 4 free pallets from a craigslist ad, and we began on a journey.  Over the past 2 weekends, we built and built, sanded and grouted, painted and cut, drilled and planed, and finally, we ended up with an AWESOME product.  (Sorry, not the best pictures.)

First, the frame.  We made 8 of these simple frames, made with 2x3s and 2x4s.  After we put them together we realized we could have easily just used 2x3s.  2x4s were overkill.  We got a sheet of cabinet grade plywood and cut it to size and screwed it all together as shown in the second picture.

Wine boxes!

They're just about my favorite things.
Other things that make the list: power tools!
My parents found some wine boxes at the flea market and of course they thought of me and bought me a few.  Horray!  And I used my new jigsaw and a hammer to fix one up real nice.

So, I only upcycled one of them, but I upcycles it into awesome!  I'm gonna hang these babies above the microwave stand and put the awesome vintage plate set I got off Etsy right on top.  And it'll look FABULOUS.

Here's the before...

And after...