Friday, December 14, 2012

How To: Stove Top Cover for Added Buffet Space

One of the stars of my daughter's birthday party this past weekend was my new stove top cover!

Do you see it below? I made a "shelf" to cover my stove top, knobs and all, and therefore make one long serving area in my kitchen. It was a super easy project and made a big impact on my ability to entertain more in my kitchen.


I started my measuring the stove top space that I wanted to cover, the height of my knobs, and the overall depth of my countertop. I took my measurements to Lowe's and found a handy salesman to explain how to make my project work easily. We found a board already cut 2'x3' which was perfect for my space. I paid for a higher quality wood with a 3/4" thickness so that I could place heavy items on my shelf and not need a middle leg which would sit on my glasstop.


Along with my wood, I bought 4 furniture legs and the metal attachments. Then, I simply screwed the metal attachments into the corners of my wood, giving myself a little room to avoid splitting and then screwed the simple wooden leg onto the metal attachment.


They had more beautiful decorative legs, but I wanted the shelf to be low profile so that it blended into my counters better and fully covered my stove below.


Here it is- it fits and completely covers and protects my glass stove top. Now, to have some fun with it!



I pulled out my handy gingham painting mat and my cream Annie Sloan chalk paint and put 3 full coats on the  board and the legs. I then used Frog Tape to tape off an area to do a fun stripe.


I painted a stripe with chalkboard paint thinking how fun it would be to put little messages to my guests or label the food on the shelf; however, I quickly learned that chalkboard paint does not work on top of chalk paint. When I wrote, the word "eat" for my picture, paint flecked off.


So, I painted right over the chalkboard paint with Annie Sloan Emperor's Silk red paint. I then stenciled the word YUM on the stripe.


My husband thought I was crazy, but I wanted something fun on my very practical shelf.


We used the shelf at Abby's party and it happily held her birthday cakes. It allowed me to serve my guests from my kitchen counters which freed up my dining room tables for serving guests or doing crafts. 


Could you use a stove top cover? Make one yourself for under $30!

To see more of Abby's party, click here or here for more Annie Sloan paint projects.