A Brilliant Use for Leftover Kitchen Countertop Stone

There are creative people, and then there’s Caitlin Mociun and Tammer Hijazi. To be fair, superior artistry is only to be expected when you’re a powerhouse jewelry designer (Mociun’s eponymous Williamsburg store alone is a sight to behold) and a rad furniture maker (Hijazi is the cofounder of the firm Bower Studios). The duo’s Brooklyn apartment is basically one big homage to their joint craftiness. Just look at their nightstands.

To find the source for their terrazzo tops, simply walk a few steps into the kitchen. After those stone counters were installed (the couple opted for London fabricator Dzek’s Marmoreal white slabs), Mociun saw an opportunity to create something new from the residual chunks. “I then tried to figure out how to not spend a ton of money on extra materials,” says Hijazi. The answer was waiting back at his studio: some cylinder cutoffs from Bower’s Contour coffee table. They were the perfect bedside table bases. 

“Keeping the design simple was important, considering how interesting the stone is,” he shares. Hijazi added some subtle architectural appeal by curving the top and bottom corners of the shelf, a nod to the rounded edges of their breakfast bar. (A fabricator could help you get the same look). He was so pleased with how the pieces turned out that he’s now developing a similar version for Bower’s collection. 

His clever design got us thinking: What are all the other ways one could potentially repurpose scraps of stone? We wouldn’t mind seeing Mociun and Hijazi’s green-and-orange–speckled surface enjoy a second life as one of these items: 

A Trivet (or Lazy Susan)

If your existing kitchen counters are sensitive to heat (e.g., butcher block or marble), avoid scorching them with your fresh-out-of-the-oven braise by setting your meal down on a sliver of rock. Add a swivel mount to the bottom and you have an incredibly stylish home for your spices, too. 

A Plant Pedestal

You can (literally) elevate your fiddle-leaf fig by setting it on a high platform topped with a leftover square of stone. A regular old terracotta pot will no longer look so basic. 

A Coffee-Table Tray 

Have a scrap shaped into a slender rectangle, attach brass handles to each end, and presto! The perfect surface to display candles or pass around charcuterie. 

The choice is yours.

See more stories like this: 6 Genius Little Ways I Repurpose Used Candle Jars Please Don’t Throw Out Your Old China This Artist Took 100 Yards of Fabric to the Beach and Made a Sofa