Saturday, October 26, 2013

Refurbished Table


When we first moved into our apartment, three-ish months ago, I began perusing my favorite thrift stores for a kitchen table that would better fill out large eating area and lend itself to hosting larger groups more easily.  I did not have any luck.  I did, however, come across a neat little table that I felt had potential.  

 (sorry for the background mess)
I paid $30.00 for it.  Simon thinks that is a little steep, but I felt that, because it was solid wood and I would be able to reuse some of the hardware, it was an okay price.

The first step was to disassemble the table and sand off all of the individual pieces.  
Sanding. Took. Forever.  

Most of the pieces (the legs and the skirt and all of the edges) had to be sanded by hand.  Plus, I did it in the Kitchen so I could do it whenever I had some extra time which made electric sanding impossible- too messy.  
One Saturday I set up shop outside Simon's office and tackled all of the larger flat surfaces. 

 


Tabletop before and after

Okay. Sanding is done.  Now onto painting.  It took me awhile to choose a paint color.  I knew what color I wanted, but it was just a matter of finding it.  I picked up probably 50 paint swatches from Lowe's and Home Depot.  Once I narrowed it down to 5 or 6, I left them on the coffee table and every couple of days would just decide.. okay no, not this one.  Until I only had one left.  
Inefficient and effective :)

Once I had decided and went to Lowe's to buy it, I changed my mind.  Ha.
I went with "Garden Sprout" by Valspar  
Which was one shade lighter than the one front and center.  

And I chose a Dark Walnut stain 


 The painting process left our kitchen in quite the construction zone.  Life took on an obstacle-course feel for a couple of days.  Simon was quite the trooper, I must say. :)
I put two coats on everything and then coated it with 2 more coats of Polyacrylic for protection.  The Polyacrylic really makes a difference in protecting it from little scuffs and divots.  I would always recommend taking the time to do that!    


 I also did two coats of stain.  The bottom shelf, with only one coat, looked much darker than the top after two. It is the difference between hard and soft wood, so there isn't anything to be done, but i was a little disappointed.  The bottom shelf ( seen above) is more the color I'd hoped for.  I really like the look of dark walnut wood.

Putting it BACK together was much more difficult than I had anticipated.  The top surface had come unglued over the years, so first I had to glue it back together.  Then, gluing all of the pieces together and making sure it all was squared up and everything... sheesh.  Simon helped me a lot with that.  You have to clamp everything while the glue is drying to achieve the necessary amount of pressure.  Attaching the top to the base was a challenge because the previous screw wholes weren't accurate anymore, once it was all re-glued and reassembled.  Plus, I don't think it was really centered initially.  I say all of that to say, I could not have done the most important part without his help!

I also decided that I wanted to try my hand at drawer lining. I read about several different methods of drawer lining.  I decided to go with a simple scrapbook paper lining.  I used Elmer's Spray adhesive and this printed paper.  It took 4 12x12 sheets overlapping to fill the space.  
I used this blog as a reference.  How To Line A Drawer
The paper cutting did NOT go as simply for me as it seemed to in this tutorial, but it could have easily been an operator error :)


Here is how everything turned out: 

Lined drawer with new hardware from Hobby Lobby


 I was really excited that all of the original hinges were in working order.  I think it gives it more character.  
 
Over all costs:
$30.00 Table
$  4.00 Spray adhesive
$  2.00 Paper
$15.00 Paint (quart)
$  6.00 Stain (quart)
$10.00 Screws  (I chose to buy a whole $6 box of the large screws just to have on hand)
$  6.00 Knobs
$73.00 
We already had the sand paper and polyacrylic from many other projects, but it is about $30.00/qt



I had a lot of trouble getting a photo that really captures the way the piece looks: color, size, etc.  This is as close as I could get.  The bottom shelf, in actuality, is NOT so much darker than the top, as it looks in all of these pictures. The table top color is a different color in reality, and the bottom really is just a bit darker.   

Well that is the end to my latest project.  I'm quite glad to be through with it, but it was a really fun process.  I don't think I will be taking on any more projects quite this time consuming and space evading until we have a home of our own with a yard and driveway :)






  

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Nothin' to see here.

Just a quick life update, or lack there of.  Not a whole lot going on over here, but I thought I would try.  

Simon just got home from a 5 day trip to New York for a friend's wedding. He had an awesome time catching up with friends and celebrating with everyone. I'm glad he is able to have those times: to get away and just have fun. 

I was off work last week after Tuesday because my kids went on a surprise (to them) trip to Magic Kingdom.  So we both had a nice little break from normal life. I spent most of the time-off working on the little table I'm refinishing. Almost done! I'll post about that soon. 

In the weeks to come we're hosting a life group Halloween party, and then Thanksgiving, I'm sure, will be here before we know it.  My parents are coming to spend Thanksgiving with us and we're looking forward to that. They haven't visited since we moved to our new place so it will be nice that we're not all cramped this time around. :)

We're making preparations for and getting excited about our 2 week trip to Germany in December/January; I can't believe it is already this close to the holidays. This year has flown by!  

Simon has no planned work trips any time soon, so it will most likely be business as usual with some holiday fun sprinkled in. 

Simon's work has really picked up and he is busy juggling everything that entails.  We view all of that as a blessing and an answered prayer but that doesn't make it less stressful for him. 

Fall has landed, most days, in our part of the world. It seemed to be dragging its feet there for awhile: A day in the 70's and then a few in the 90's.  But it seems to have leveled out, and we're consistently enjoying chilly mornings with comfortable days and evenings.  It doesn't really look life fall: minimal changing leaves. But hopefully that will come soon. 

I'm personally looking forward to the fast-approaching holiday season. This is my favorite time of year. Time to bust out the warm drinks, cozy slippers and pumpkin everything!  I'm a sucker for fall and all its fix'ns.  I have made my pumpkin purchases, the never-to-be-lit pinecone candle has emerged from the holiday bin, and I am on the hunt for the must-make fall recipes that are sure to not disappoint.  

Hopefully, before too long, we will have something more exciting to report, but until then- this is us. 

Happy fall y'all.