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Look! Kitchen Island Made From Shopping Carts

2009_02_24-Cart01.jpg2009_02_24-Cartthumbs.jpgWow, take a look at this kitchen island -- it's made from shopping carts!

 
 

This is part of Peter's San Francisco loft, featured today on Apartment Therapy. Peter constructed the kitchen "cart" himself. Here's what he says about it:

This thing is weird. Didn’t want to spend big bucks for an island, but needed more counter space and a way to break up the open layout. Keeping with the trend of bringing the outdoors in, I made the base out of shopping carts to reflect my “up and coming” SOMA neighborhood. It’s Derelique. The carts were cut above the wheels, turned on-end and re-welded. The top is part of an IKEA butcher block table flanked by some donated granite. Hanging stemware racks complete the rolling, kitchen island bar thing.

We love it! It works perfectly in his space. Here's a little more info about the photos above, too.

1 The up-ended shopping carts.
2 A bigger view of the kitchen.
3 Here's a better look at the top of the island/cart.
4 Peter leaves his spices stuck to the microwave, above the stove.
5 Beautiful art in the kitchen.

• See the full tour: House Tour: Peter's Light Loft Living

Related: Kitchen Spotlight: A Transformation in Encino

(Images: Lily G. for Apartment Therapy)

Comments (14)

those shopping carts are the cleverest thing ever, especially with the little fruit cart on top.

posted by Kate (NC) on February 24th 2009 at 4:35pm
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That is so cool! Absolutely brilliant!

posted by justveggingout on February 24th 2009 at 5:02pm
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This would be perfect in my "Junk Style" kitchen. What a cool, funky island!

posted by MyLastBite on February 24th 2009 at 5:24pm
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I'm curious where the shopping carts came from, Saving money on furniture by recycling is cool, but stealing from someone else to do so - not so much.

posted by Grumpy Girl on February 24th 2009 at 5:43pm
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Derelique! Ha hah! The Zoolander kitchen.

posted by berkeleydaisy on February 24th 2009 at 5:52pm
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Yeah, I was sort of wondering where the carts came from too. Those things are expensive!

posted by badifat on February 24th 2009 at 6:58pm
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I like this! I also wondered where they came from. Hopefully, they were honest castoffs...........

posted by Maureen on February 24th 2009 at 7:21pm
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Another curious questioner of the carts' origin... saw a shopping cart chair yesterday on re-nest from a site that refashions items into furniture, but was appalling in price. Always bugs me when things are "reused" and sold for thousands of dollars. The designing minds at Ikea, many years ago, approached a manufacturer of metal shopping carts to help design a low-cost table made with similar lines and concepts. I thought that was way innovative!

posted by TheGoodBiGirl on February 25th 2009 at 1:22am
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Add another the list of those wondering where the shopping carts came from....

posted by angorian on February 25th 2009 at 8:29am
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What a great idea! I wish I had enough space in my kitchen for this...I bet there will be a shortage of shopping carts everywhere now :)

posted by orchidgirl1979 on February 25th 2009 at 10:34am
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Damn - I just tried to toss two shopping carts in the back of my SUV last night while at Giant grocery store, and they both wouldn't fit.

I'll get the second one later tonight. (I just hope the cashier doesn't ask me, "Why are you checking out with a shopping cart when all you bought was just one avocado?")

posted by justveggingout on February 25th 2009 at 11:04am
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Great island! Side question -- I've long wanted those racks you can screy into the bottom of cabinets and hang wine glasses on (there are some in the middle of this cart). Where can you find those?

posted by jbhansen on February 25th 2009 at 11:33am
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jbhansen...google stemware rack, or, any organizational store, crate and barrel, william sonoma, a wine store, restaurant supply etc. will have those.

posted by splatgirl on February 25th 2009 at 1:24pm
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Hello everyone,

Thanks for the compliments. I purchased the shopping carts from Economy Restaurant Fixtures here in SF. After showing them comps on eBay, they gave me a good price on a couple with faulty wheels.

jbhansen - This is also where I purchased the stemware racks.

Peter

posted by reiskid on February 26th 2009 at 6:27pm
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