The center of attention
A standard ice bucket just wasn’t versatile enough. Renee Borsack wanted her outdoor table to have a built-in ice basin -- something that could handle six bottles at a time, or cradle shrimp and oysters on the half shell, or simply float candles and pink tea roses from her San Juan Capistrano garden.
Her solution? Borsack had a stone carver cut a trough in the center of her 8-foot-long travertine tabletop. The opening is 2 1/2 feet long and 6 1/2 inches wide. A drain in the middle of the trench connects to the sewer pipe, which is concealed by the table’s concrete-and-cinder-block pedestal.
“We didn’t want any debris, like shrimp tails, to drain into the landscaping, then out to the curb,” says Borsack, whose husband, Jim, owns B Cellars wines.
The couple got the idea for the piece last year, when they saw a marble table with an embedded basin at a Napa Valley winery. They came up with their own streamlined design, and Renee approached Hans Safarpour of Kitchen & Flooring Discounters in Santa Ana to make it.
She wanted French limestone, which would have continued the theme of their French garden, but Safarpour advised against it. Limestone would have been too porous and wouldn’t hold up well outside. Polished granite also would have taken a beating in the sun and rain.
Honed travertine, however, would provide elegance and durability, Safarpour said.
His crew took a three-fourths-inch-thick slab and cut it lengthwise, down the middle of the tabletop. Then they used a saw to cut out half of the ice basin in each slab. When the two pieces were then fused back together, they formed a single trough, and the tabletop’s seam was hidden in the veining of the stone.
Another three-fourths-inch-thick travertine slab was positioned underneath, sandwiched between the cut top surface and the pedestal. Edges were then rounded for a finished look.
Safarpour says the cost for a similar tabletop with a custom basin starts at $2,500, depending on the material and design.
“We entertain so much that we wanted something permanent but different,” Borsack says. “It took five guys just to carry the base into the backyard. This table will last.”
--
