Old table/New look!

I bought a table and 4 chairs. Around 2010 sometime. So long ago that I forgot where I bought it. Maybe GoodWill? It was a great deal though … I remember that part. I bought them all for $25!!! It sat around for years being a utility table for all my other projects. Unfortunately, I was loading it down with anything and everything and it ended up pretty messy. In fact, when I went back to find a starting photo, the only one I could find was one that is actually cleaner than it normally was. But hey,

Creativity gets messy!

(You may quote me.)

 

 

I digress…

My mother moved into her independent living apartment in October and needed a dining room table. She sold her table when she moved here to Minnesota and now is eating on her card table. I am in awe of how simple and content she lives. I would want to have pictures and color on my walls and of course a table to eat on. A real table. She is content that she has walls, white is fine, and her card table is a table.

You already know that I happen to have a table that is not being used and l wanted to see if I could make it into something that she would be proud to have in her home. I needed to keep it simple, so she would welcome it into her home. Simple doesn’t mean it won’t be classy!

Oh, and it was a Christmas present for her.

The finish was so bad on it that I decided to sand it down to see what I had to work with. There was grime to wash off, old paint and varnish to remove, and I was pleasantly surprised to find gorgeous wood underneath.

(Sorry for the bad lighting. I was working into the night with only the patio light to see.)

 

 

What we don’t do for love. Night time is cold here in Minnesota even though we are having a warmer winter than normal. You can see some snow on the ground. Brrrr!

 

 

I love working on projects. I usually have some noise going in the background (this time of year its Hallmark movies) and I get lost in my thoughts. I see what is developing and think about what I can do with it. I was going to stain the wood but I thought the contrast of the light wood and darker legs would be a pretty. I decided on a clear coat. It shows the definition of the wood without making it too dark.

 

 

I also had to tighten bolts, add missing nuts, and fix the back of one of the chairs (it needed the old dowel  drilled out and a new one placed).

It became sturdy again and I was getting excited to see something beautiful emerge. I found myself wishing I could keep it for myself as a game table downstairs. Maybe I should run out and buy her something different? Hahahaha. No worries, I didn’t.

The last thing that I did was to distress the edges. It was looking too plain and the distressing helped bring out the lines of the furniture.

 

 

In a throw away society, I enjoy finding something that can be revamped and used again.

 

 

This was a project made with love, knowing that my mom would be able to use something that I did for her, every day. I hope it reminds her of how much I love her and enjoy caring for her.

 

 

I am working on another project for her that I will post soon. As you get older you have different needs and I am having fun trouble shooting those needs to make her life easier.

Hugs,