Photo Credit: Amanda Archibald/Fotosynthesis

One of our favorite stores in the D.C. area is a non-profit reuse/recycled materials warehouse that sells excess building materials and vintage finds. Its the perfect place to pick up a reasonably priced piece to fit your DIY needs. We knew we wanted to create a bussing station for the coffee shop that could hide our trash and recycling bins, while remaining super functional.

We found this cool dresser at Community Forklift which had a great art deco pattern and wood tones that matched the rest of our space. The handles were also an amazing detail but they needed some elbow grease to make them shine again. During my mom’s visit to D.C. she got to work on these handles, helping us polish them up with some Barkeepers Friend until they were like new again.

What we essentially did with this piece is took off the back and the insides of the drawers, kept the front of the drawers and sides of the dresser, and secured them together with a few pieces of wood and some screws. We then added small furniture wheels on the bottom so that this can wheel back and forth over the garbage cans as needed everyday. We made two holes in the top and bought some plastic rings to inset over the garbage cans and added some stickers for both trash and recycling.

We used some plywood, left over subway tile, and a few thin pieces of wood to create and trim out a backsplash, and stained the sides to match the wood of the dresser. With a few cheap metal L brackets that we spray painted gold and a simple piece of wood across the top, we were able to create an extra little spot for milk, sugar, etc. Before completing the piece, we lined the inside with some PVC board to ensure we could easily clean up any spills.

See below some of the BEFORE and DURING shots from this project!

For those curious about all of the details in the final product, the gold utensils are from Target, the mason jars and glass containers are a mix from Michaels and Target, the carafe’s are from Amazon, and the sugar holders are a mix- one was my grandmothers and one is from Home Goods.

The Bussing Station Project