@evelynandtheodore

Dining Room Table- $5 Salvation Army Rescue Mission

Today was a very productive day, despite the fact that I changed out of my pajamas into a new pair of pajamas and never left the house.

Among the craziness, I made time to finally do our dining room table. About two days before we moved in, Leah and I picked up this beat up table from Salvation Army. It had sturdy bones, an option to maybe make some leaves at some point (the originals were missing), and a $10 price tag.

But, here's the best part: the price tag was white. And it just so happened that on the day that we were there, all white tags were 50% off. And you can't beat a big strong table for $5.00, it just doesn't happen.

If you came into the house on any given day the past two months, you would have seen something like this (only way more cluttered, and the chairs are a recent addition).


Doesn't look awful, right? WRONG. This poor table lived in a house hold full of children, I assume because the stains, the scratches, the everything.... It was rough.












Like what is that blob?? There were similar unidentified blobs and marks all over the table, but the wood grain was nice, so I had originally planned to do a two tone table, much like this one from DIY Beautify. I would just prepare the top for the refinish, and paint the legs and apron today.

However, after stripping and sanding the table for about 2 hours, I gave up on my dream of refinishing the beast this spring. This thing did not change one bit. I was heartbroken. Abu tried to help, but he doesn't have thumbs, so that was a lost cause.








So, I thought it over for a while, and had decided to just keep using the table cloth. I'd paint the legs and the apron black, and then cover the Big Ugly with a beige or a red cloth like I had been.

So I got to work.

And then Sarabi decided she wanted to help as well. Only she went a more direct route of telling me what to do. She traipsed her cute little paws through some paint on the lid, and jumped on the top. I now had kitty paw prints on my table.


At first I was kind of upset, but then I decided to roll with it and just paint the whole thing black. So she really did help, because let me tell you-- what a difference these two coats of paint have made!!


I'm actually quite happy with how this turned out. We look like we have a set instead of just random pieces of furniture thrown together, and I love it.


While there are still nicks and dings and some remnants of the really deep scratches left on here, it looks a million times better. It may not be perfect, and I think I may put an extra coat of paint on it next week before the polyurethane, but I have no complaints (and neither does Abu).



Next week I plan (tentatively- an old friend is coming over and I might have someone coming to pick up a piece of furniture) on beginning on the green bookcase/hutch you can see in some of these pictures. It needs a good strip and sand, and a nice coat of black paint. Then it'll fit right in with the rest of the dining room! Let's see how far I can stretch this can of paint (can I cover the bookcase and the kitty hideaway??)!

We're getting closer and closer to that wing back chair, you guys. The pressure is mounting!!

Hope you all are having a good week! Let me know what you think!



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