Man oh man, I think I’ve created a whole new monster!
The other day my daughter and I went to a moving sale. Let me preface this by saying that in my entire life, I think I’ve gone to 1 garage sale. That occurred many moons ago and I haven’t gone to one since.
Anyway, my daughter is learning to drive and we thought it would be fun driving across town early in the morning to attend a moving sale. The route took us on winding country roads and the scenery was beautiful.
We got to the house and looked through the furniture. My daughter who loves everything new and shiny took one look at the place and gave me that “really Mom???” look. I ignored it and we carefully stepped through the house.
Found Gold
I saw two wooden tables and knew I had to have them. The woman said $35 for both tables, and I said, “Sold!” As we picked up one of the tables the leg fell off and the shelf hit the floor. I looked at the woman and said, “$20.” She said, “Sold.”
We put the several pieces of table in the car and drove home.
My daughter didn’t see what I saw in those two tables. Here’s a picture of the smaller table. I didn’t photograph the larger of the two tables because pieces were still in the car and it couldn’t stand on only 3 legs:
I looked online and saw a pair of tables this exact size that were “antiqued” and selling for $250 for the pair.
Although I appreciate a good antique, I didn’t want to distress the furniture. I think for dramatic effect I wanted to spruce it up to show my family that I wasn’t crazy and the tables were a good buy.
I started with the sicker of the two tables, the large one. It took about 10 screws and a lot of paint, but when I was a through, this is what I have:
Now that I’ve finished the first table, I’m going back to work on the smaller of the two. I don’t know about you, but I think I got a great find for $20. When I’m done with the other table, I’ll update this post with a side-by-side photo of the two together.
Just like container gardening, I think this can become addictive. 🙂
Update Augusts 26, 2012: Here’s a photo of the two tables plus an old step stool.
The step stool had been sitting around the house for about a decade. It was ugly but functional. I decided to paint it using the left over paint from the tables. These three pieces of furniture are now known as TCT (The Cheap Trio).
Step Stool Before:
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Thank you for your reply. I love to use Miniwax and will most likely now use on my next project.
I have to add that I would not have used a different color on the shelf and now will add this idea to my file.
Thanks again,
Elaine
Indecision is what caused me to use the two colors. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted the table light or dark, so I used both. 🙂
Glad to be of help. Good luck with your next project.
I love what you did with the table. When you post the finished pair, please add the type of paint. I’d like to do this with my garage find and not sure whether or not to use flat or high gloss paint.
I’m like you, Elaine. I’m never sure if I should use gloss, semi-gloss, satin or flat paint. Since we have lots of left over paint from prior painting projects I used what we had on hand.
The dark paint is actually a stain and polyurethane in one. It’s from Minwax. The color is Bombay Mahogany (Satin). The pinkish color is from Behr, it’s a Semi-Gloss Enamel. Hope that helps.