Two-Tone Table, revisited

My love for farmhouse tables continues unabated, but I took a little break from that style this past week or so.

When I showed you the Wide Farmhouse Table I made for my friend Stacy, I mentioned that I had previously refinished another table for her, but it was looking a little worse for the wear after a few years with a family of boys!

My job was to make it beautiful again.  What do you think?

Here’s what it looked like when I got it:

And here’s what it looked like after the first re-finish job:

After some good hard family use, there were some real problems:

Not sure why my cell phone photos look a little blue!  Anyway, there was chipped paint, naturally.  And then the finish on the top of the table went very cloudy in places.  I blame an inferior polyurethane I got from Ace Hardware (sorry, Ace), as that is the only time I’ve ever used it, and I hated it even then!  I actually still had the same can in my stash…I have now gotten rid of it! 

I chose to use CitriStrip to get rid of the old poly, rather than sanding it down.  There really was no need to go back to bare wood, as I still liked the original colors underneath.

I did, however, refresh the color with a new coat of stain before putting on the polyurethane.  This time I used three coats of Minwax Hand-rubbed Polyurethane in Satin, followed by one coat of paste wax.

The chairs got a light sanding, and then I repainted with oil-based paint this time.  It tends to be a little more long-wearing, I think.  I recovered the seats in this pretty fabric.  You know I’m a sucker for typography!!

I love how the leaves on this table tuck away neatly underneath.  Pull them both out, and you have another 30” of table space!  Such a great feature.

I adore the legs on this piece…

I am so glad I got to be the one to give this set a THIRD life!

I have to say…it really looked gorgeous in my dining room!  It was hard to let it go…again!

What do you think??  Is there room in your life for both rustic farmhouse tables and beautiful antiques?  There is in mine!

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The Inspiration Exchange	Elizabeth & Co.
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Friday Remodelaholic	The Scoop!
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Knick of Time	Domestically Speaking
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
	Mod Vintage Life

Charcoal Farmhouse Table & Aqua Benches

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have gotten a sneak peek at some of the furniture adventures I was up to last week!  Bought some, sold some, and did a lot of hauling in between.  Hopefully the ones I kept will be showing up here on the blog one of these days soon.

In the meantime, I have finished up another farmhouse table for my friend Kim.

This one is similar to Stacy’s table, although not as wide—but I did cut off the rounded edges of the stock lumber (with my table saw) for a smoother top.

Kim wanted a dark grayish-black color for her table, and I think we ended up with a pretty good charcoal.  This was achieved by first staining it all with Rustoleum Black, then a layer of Weathered Gray (well rubbed in), followed by another very light coat of black with an almost dry rag.

I built two benches for her as well (the plans are out of Ana White’s Handbuilt Home book).

I made a DIY chalk paint with the leftover paint from my daughter’s bedroom makeover.  After distressing, I wiped Rustoleum weathered gray stain over all.  It helped color the exposed raw wood, and dulled the color of the aqua a little bit.

I really like how using some of the same stain over the painted benches makes everything “go” together!

It was fun to step away from the brown stains for a little bit!

 

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Linking up here:

The Inspiration Exchange	Elizabeth & Co.
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Knick of Time	Domestically Speaking
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
	Mod Vintage Life

Vintage Geek Family Room

I would say my family room project is about 85% complete!  Hallelujah.  The other 15% will probably take another year or more to finish off, so I decided I might as well show off what I have to date.

What I call our “family room” is the “bonus” room of the house—right over the garage.  We’re a one-TV family (we’re not counting all the other personal electronic devices we have floating around here), and this is where it resides.

You’ve already seen the Vintage Geek Gallery Wall (which included the Green Dragon Inn Sign) and the Triple Printer’s Console Cabinet. 

The leather sectional was the big splurge for this room.  It replaced an 11-year-old La-Z-Boy sofa bed and loveseat.  I kind of felt bad getting rid of them, as they’ve actually held up remarkably well over the years, but I was so over the red plaid fabric I picked out and promptly regretted (“before” pictures at the end of the post).

The sectional is the Helena Sectional from Costco.  I had ordered a leather swatch last fall, but didn’t decide to order until January 1 (starting the new year off with a bang!) when it was on sale.  I was SUPER nervous about ordered it sight-unseen, but decided to risk it since I know Costco is so amazing about accepting returns, even months later.

Originally the shipper estimated that it would take six weeks to get the sectional here, and I was OK with that.  Imagine my surprise when, after only two weeks, I was told to expect it one week later!  I panicked and quickly got rid of the sofa/loveseat we had in the room.  Then we waited.  And waited.  And waited!  After waiting a full week, I contacted the shipper to say “what’s up??”  They didn’t bother to answer me, just changed the date back to reflect a six-week delivery time.  And that’s how long it took. We lived without furniture for three weeks!!  I’m still miffed about that.

As for the sectional, I’m quite happy with it.  The leather feels great.  The back cushions are perfectly cushy.  The seat cushions are firmer, but still very comfortable.  I don’t have any regrets!

I also showed off my IKEA hack to store my husband’s Lord of the Rings Lego collection.  Moving those Legos OUT of my bedroom was the jumping-off point for this whole room!  But my dear husband is not loyal to just Lord of the Rings…

…he’s just as crazy (if not more so) about Star Wars!  So in the opposite corner of the room, I built three floating shelves to hold the Star Wars Legos.

In keeping with the “vintage geek” theme of the room, I purchased three vintage-style Star Wars “travel posters” from this Etsy seller to go on this side of the room as well (over the piano).  If you’ll remember, I purchased LOTR posters from a different seller for the Vintage Geek Gallery Wall. 

Here are a few other elements in the room that I love.

I made the curtains myself from this fabric.  I consider it another splurge at $20/yard, but I love them SO MUCH!  They were perfect for the vibe I was going for.  Only drawback is that you can’t see that I added trim to the windows in the room!

I got rid of my dear husband’s big ugly recliner, but knew I needed to replace it with something.  I wanted a recliner that didn’t LOOK like a recliner, kwim??

I found this blue leather Barcalounger at Goodwill for…wait for it…FIFTEEN DOLLARS!  I was pretty stoked.  It may not be THE PERFECT chair, but for $15, it’s darn close. 

The little typewriter table sitting next to it has a story all it’s own (which I will have to share another time).  I refinished it to go with the industrial “vibe” of the room.

I bought these two barrister-style bookcases from an estate sale.  They are reproductions, not antiques, but they were a heck of a lot cheaper than antiques!  I love that they are seven feet tall!  Oh, and see the light saber on the top??  One of these days I’m supposed to mount it to the wall above the Star Wars travel posters.

So, wanna see what this room used to look like??

Here we are at Christmas time.  Plaid sofa and loveseat, big ugly recliner, IKEA rug, goofy kids…

Yes, I know the furniture is in weird configurations.  I moved it around A LOT while I was trying to decide what to do with the room.

Mismatched bookcases, IKEA console.  Nothing on the walls! (Plus the walls and the ceiling were a darker tan, making the whole room feel darker.)

I think I prefer it this way, how about you??

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Linking up here:

The Inspiration Exchange	Elizabeth & Co.
Primitive & Proper
Friday Remodelaholic	The Scoop!
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off Miss Mustard Seed
Beyond the Picket Fence	Coastal Charm
Knick of Time	Domestically Speaking
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life