{"id":5881,"date":"2010-01-27T23:00:22","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T04:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/?p=5881"},"modified":"2016-02-07T12:41:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-07T17:41:38","slug":"convertible-surface-for-a-kitchen-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2010\/01\/27\/convertible-surface-for-a-kitchen-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Convertible Zinc Top for a Kitchen Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ellen<\/a><\/p>\n

Ten years after it was built, my kitchen still looked great EXCEPT for the counter tops. The speckled black-white-and-gray granite that seemed so right at the time looked dated, and its pattern was too busy to use as a surface for the food photography we did in my space. My friend Holton Rower<\/a>, who is an amazing artist, designer, and gifted improvisor, said “Why don’t you make a top to fit over the one you have?…Make a form out of plywood that will fit over the granite, \u00a0and cover it with a soft-ish metal that can wrap around the form…”<\/p>\n

I remembered the old burnished zinc bars and cafe tables I’d seen in France, and thought that zinc’s soft luster would be make a beautiful surface to photograph food on. So I looked up ZINC FABRICATORS in the Yellow Pages, and found a guy in Brooklyn who would make me what I wanted. All I had to do was send him a plan…<\/p>\n

\"Sally<\/a>
Sally Schneider<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s easy to draw up a plan IF you don’t care about looking like a designer or mind rendering perspective like a kid. A plan just has to communicate essential information. I took the gist of Holton’s idea and measured and figured and made my odd plan which I faxed to the zinc guy (we never met). A few weeks later, his delivery men arrived with the top which fitted snugly over the granite top of the island – or perhaps better put: \u00a0the old granite top fit INTO the new one, so it was completely engulfed and hidden.<\/p>\n

The zinc IS a perfect surface for photography; it makes any food look good although you can’t put food directly on it (zinc is somewhat reactive, like copper); you have to use cutting boards. And, on occasion, during a photo shoot or when we are working on a big project, my assistant and I carry the zinc top into the other room and make a work surface with a couple of saw horses; the island\u00a0with its original granite top is still totally usable.<\/p>\n

\"Ellen<\/a>
Ellen Silverman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lessons in this story are partly about collaboration – how talking about a problem with someone else can lead to solutions – and about the possibility for us all to make rough, imperfectly-drawn plans and then bring them into being.<\/p>\n

(It’s also a lesson about the enduring greatness of Business-to-Business Yellow Pages<\/a>, where you can find the likes of a zinc fabricator. I hold onto my ancient paper copy from 2001 because I still find great resources there, although the zinc guy has disappeared.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten years after it was built, my kitchen still looked great EXCEPT for the counter tops. The speckled black-white-and-gray granite that seemed so right at the time looked dated, and its pattern was too busy to use as a surface for the food photography we did in my space. My friend Holton Rower, who is…<\/p>\nRead More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8360,6554,6548,67,8363],"tags":[489,783,784,785],"yoast_head":"\nConvertible Zinc Top for a Kitchen Island - Improvised Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ten years after it was built, my kitchen still looked great EXCEPT for the counter tops. 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