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For the Love of Food Styling: Tabletop Construction

General

One of the best things about our place is the kitchen which is way bigger than any of the kitchens we’ve had in the past. It even has fancy granite-top counters which is amazing for making things like bread, soft pretzels, or pie crust. The one down side to granite counters is they don’t really provide the clean white background I like to have in my food photos. At first I tried using foam core as a backdrop — snooze. Then I tried white tablecloth — better. Still though, I wanted something that looked rustic and more kitchen-like. What I really wanted was an old whitewashed farm table, but even though our kitchen is bigger, it’s definitely not huge.

I’d been thinking about a few different solutions, but they all involved building things with tools (which is not my forte) or winning the lottery. Then I went over to Ali and Elijah’s house and realized Elijah is quite the carpenter — for fun, he made a baking cabinet for Ali to store all of her cake supplies in. So this weekend, my super handy and awesome neighbors helped me build the next best thing to a table: a tabletop made up of one 2×4! It fits right on my counter, stores easily, and makes for the perfect food photography backdrop. It took a just few hours to put together and to paint and cost $20 for all the materials. I haven’t been this excited about taking food photos in a long time! It looks quite table-y, don’t you think?

Last modified: January 10, 2019