Through this project, I’ve learned that spaces evolve. What we thought a room would look like a year ago is not what we envision now. From the start, the new addition was meant to be modern, but over time, I felt something was missing to tie the old and new together. I was scrolling through Pinterest one day and came across a beautiful photo of a kitchen. In the center of this kitchen was a beautiful, old display counter they had converted into an island.

Photo: Pinterest

Dreamy right? It inspired me. I now wanted to find an old piece we could incorporate into the modern kitchen. So, my journey began. We needed a twelve to fourteen foot long island. It started on Ebay, but most counters were only seven to nine feet long and a fortune. Not to mention the amount of people “eyeing” it. I then turned to architectural salvage stores we had visited throughout the state of Georgia and Alabama. Sadly, most said they rarely come across store counters longer than six to seven feet.

Up late one night, I came across Old Town Architectural Salvage in Wichita, Kansas. I typed in “store counter” and three came up in my search. I felt as though I had struck gold! I emailed the store inquiring about the store counters and he told me they had several available, some of them fifteen feet long.

After about fifty emails and pictures back and forth, we finally decided on the perfect piece. This fourteen foot, heart pine general store counter made its way from Wichita, Kansas to its new home in early January. Circa mid to late 1800’s, it comes with a lot of history and a beautiful beadboard design on the front and sides. We can’t wait to begin work on this piece, re-purposing it into our kitchen island for everyone to enjoy.

Today, we are heading to Otto, North Carolina to visit another salvage store. Fingers crossed we find some newel posts and doors for the tower porch!

Have a happy weekend.

Photos by Krys Alex