When we have parties at our house, the counter between the kitchen and the eating area is usually covered with food. The stove makes a big chunk of that space unusable. One day I had the bright idea of building a cover for it using some of the scrap 3/4″ oak plywood leftover from the desk project. I bought a 1×8″ piece of oak and set off building the box.
I wanted to crank this out pretty quickly and new that it would only get used a few times per year, so I kept it really simple. The joints on the corners are simple butt joints held together with pocket screws. The top fits down inside the box and rests on support rails.
Storage was a key feature since we won’t be using this 99.9% of the time. We decided it would fit well in the drawer below the oven, but to fit there, it needed to be cut in half. So I built the cover as a single piece and then ran it through the table saw as the last step. That’s where it went a little wrong. I got some tear-out on the plywood. I improvised and cut a thin strip of oak to overlap the gap. It covers up the tear-out and also will make sure food doesn’t fall through the gap. It’s not ideal but it looks fine.
I finish it all with a cherry stain and then four coats of spray lacquer. It got it’s first use at the Super Bowl party and worked very well.
If you’re interested in this idea but don’t want to build one, you can buy them online.