Compass Coffee Table

Oh, coffee tables…how I have missed you…

After my coffee-table-painting-spree last spring (all beginning with the French Chocolate table), there has been a dearth of coffee tables in my life.

It’s been very sad.

OK, that’s not really the truth.  The truth is that this particular coffee table has been sitting around half-finished in my garage for months.  But my post-Christmas don’t-know-what-to-do-with-myself-itis finally made me get it done!

I fell in love with Vintage Revival’s painted compass rug back in…let’s see, I think it was May—and promptly saved it to my “bookmarks.”  (See, it was so long ago, it was pre-Pinterest!)

I thought the compass idea would be great for a table, so I went on the hunt for a round coffee table and found this one:

After sanding, I base-coated it white, but then I dry-brushed two or three (I can’t really remember anymore) other shades of white and cream onto it to give the color a little depth.

Then it sat…and sat…and sat…in my garage.  It got dusty and dirty; it got paint remover spilled on it…it got circles of stain from the stain can on it…

I call it “character–building.”

Finally this week I decided to just GITTER-DONE (ala Funky Junk)!  After touching up the paint, I generally followed Mandi’s tutorial, and with the aid of a yardstick and a 45-degree triangle, I drew my compass with a pencil.  (I also did a Google search for “how to find the center of a circle,” because I no longer remember.  I used the instructions here.)

Guess what?  You can erase pencil marks off of paint pretty good.  Thank heavens.

I painted the compass design with plain old acrylic paint, while crawling around on the floor next to the table.  My knees are still sore. 

I don’t really have too many intermediate pictures…sorry; my kids have to go to school sometimes…so let’s just jump in to the “after,” OK?

The distressed the table pretty heavily, going down to the wood in places, but also showing off the layers of “white.” 

I glazed the whole thing with Jacobean stain mixed with Martha Stewart glazing medium.

I really, really love it!

Hmmm…maybe I should try this on a rug!

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This project has been featured at It’s So Very Cheri, Better After, Stylish Once Again, Elizabeth & Co., Bless My Nest, and…

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Stylish Once Again
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	Thrifty Décor Chick
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
Too Much Time on My Hands	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	Artsy Girl Connection

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Free Seed Catalogs 2012 - Spring Herb Catalogs and General Seed Catalogs

If you're like me, January is the perfect time to start
planning your spring herb and vegetable garden. The landscape may look bleak
today, but in a couple of months everything will change for the better. Become
a part of it by making this your best year in the garden.




I've gathered together a list of free catalog links that
will help you get in on the fun. Every season sees new plant

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Painting by Numbers

My love affair with numbers on furniture is well-documented!

One of my earliest projects was a numbered--and lettered--desk and chair (click on images to be taken to the blog post):

Then there have been several sets of barstools:

A couple of tables (Roman numerals still count!):

…and even a chest of drawers.

So although I fell head over heels for this set of old wooden folding chairs at my favorite consignment shop last fall,

…I thought they could be improved a little—with numbers.

Yes, this is what I do with the nervous energy that remains after the holidays!

These chairs have been featured at It’s So Very Cheri and {Primp}!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Too Much Time on My Hands
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground

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Getting Rid of Houseplant Pests the Easy Way

The weather's getting downright cold (if not frigid) for some of us around the country, which means many of us are housebound and looking at our indoor plants with winter longing.  If your ginger (rosemary or basil) plant looks nibbled, dew speckled or slightly web infested, there may be a solution that doesn't involve spraying insecticide all over your indoor spaces.

A Fast Way to Treat

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Holiday Cleanup Tips

If your house looks like a holiday disaster, we have something in common.  I'm digging out from under boxes, bags and piles of operating manuals and warranty cards.  I'm also taking stock of my kitchen -- from the piles of cookie tins to the abandoned dehydrator in the corner.  I have a list of New Year's resolutions somewhere -- just where probably won't become apparent until sometime in

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Blemishes – I will keep them!

On a day to day basis I look around my home and see so many things I could change/fix…but I don’t/won’t – why?
Because they are the little things that don’t bother me – I see them everyday I clean – I see them when I walk into the room…I KNOW THEY ARE THERE….but do you? NO…So why fix them – they are unimportant to the overall picture which is my home.
When you step inside you see the BIG PICTURE…not the little things I see everyday so they are probably there to stay until the next family lives here or if I get a bug one day to get out all the things it would take to fix the TINY THINGS…that don’t even matter.

~ Will I ever remember to NOT get the vacuum close to the base of my Armoire? No…every time I push that thing right up to the edge and I know every time what’s going to happen.  Would you be likely to see this – I doubt it.

~ And my kitchen cupboard – got hit with something heavy one day – should fix it…probably NOT. For some reason it doesn’t bother me…they are Pine cabinets…Pine will get bumps and bruises…so do I.

~ A chip of wood came out of the edge of my closet door years ago…guess we could piece some in there – do a little surgery on it…I’ve had surgery…all it does is make a scar.

~ When we moved into our home 32 years ago there was a plant hanger in the bathroom…still there…why?  I don’t know! It has been a part of my home…

~ Wear marks on my pantry doors where we open and close it everyday…these are signs of use and age…I have many of these on me…will they go away…NO…neither will these wear marks…they ARE the pantry.

~ Paneling is pulling away from wall in family room…it’s not real noticeable to most people…I know it’s there and when I clean it bugs me…but will it get fixed soon…NO…there are a few of these cracks in the walls…even though they bug me at times…I rather like them. They show the age of the room.
 

it’s not a new house…it is almost as old as me - it has seen many color changes to its look but never changed what it really is – the bones of it are still in tact…and so the same goes for me…I have blemishes - many little things I could change/fix…but I won’t…why?
Because you don’t see them – but I do…but they are unimportant to the overall picture which is ME.

Oh yes, there are two teeth that would be nice if they were straighter…my left leg not so bent at the knee…a scar that goes from mid thigh to mid calf – do you see it…NO. I have troubles and bad thoughts some time…but do you see them…NO. 
If I were taller then clothes would look better than they do on me…and my age…goodness if I were younger my crease lines around my eyes wouldn’t show…and my hands – well, you can tell they have been around for many years.
BUT THESE ARE THINGS THAT MAKE ME who I am and I’m okay with me…no one else sees these things generally so what you see is ME…not all my blemishes…I WILL KEEP THEM…because they are me.  Fixed…I would not be ME.

I hope you are all thinking about who you are and what you want…just be happy with who you are regardless of all the blemishes – if we didn’t have them we wouldn’t have character – so be happy and just be YOU and I will be ME.

I am going to leave you with one of my most favorite pictures of Lola – so far anyway…she’s always getting into places…and right now this is the cutest.
And she knows she’s cute too!

Enjoy your new year everyone.

Karen

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Two-Tone Table

I actually wanted to call this the “Two-Friends-Two-Tone-Table,” but that was kind of a mouthful!

Once upon a time, one of my dear friends got it into her head that she wanted me to refinish a dining set for her.  The fact that she lives 750 miles away from me was no deterrent to her…nor was the fact that she has never physically seen any of the pieces I have refinished.  She was determined!

So the search began—long distance and on-line—to find a suitable table.  We were on a tight budget, since her husband is one of the nation’s many unemployed.

Enter Friend 2.  Upon hearing of our search, she offered to let me have a vintage dining set that had belonged to her husband’s mother.  Yes, let me have.  As in—for free.  She knew it was for another friend of mine, and that they had no money.  So out of the goodness of her heart, she donated to our “cause.”

Friend 1 and Friend 2 don’t know each other, and probably will never meet.  But bless them both, for having faith in ME to put this little transaction together!

The table was completely disassembled when I first saw it, but I fell for the chunky legs…hard.

The table top has pull-out leaves on each end and a beautiful apron (it’s the piece on the right, leaning up against the dresser that later became yellow).

Plus a pretty stretcher (it’s not quite so blurry in real life).

And six chairs, one of which is an arm chair.

Friend 1 only ever saw the pictures, but she trusted me to bring this dining set into the current century!  I’m sure she had a few misgivings along the way, though!

There were a lot of loose joints and such, so I had to do some gluing (this Bessey clamp was a marvel to work with—I borrowed it from a friend, and almost didn’t give it back):

…as well as some creative repair work on the arm chair.  The dowel had broken off, so I used a 3/8” paddle bit to drill out the old dowel, and then I cut a new one to replace it and re-glued the arm back on the chair.

I enlisted some of my short help to sand chairs…

He looks thrilled, doesn’t he??

I sanded the table top completely down—you can see how dark the original finish was on the leaves! 

The rest of the table top was not in nearly that good of condition!

The grooves on the top of the table reminded me of a checkerboard, and inspired me to try a two-color staining job.  The only problem was that the grooves did not extend down the sides of the table top—but that was nothing a little work with a handsaw and some black paint couldn’t fix!

I painted the base of the table (and the chairs) black, and distressed them to highlight the turnings and carvings. 

The dark stain on the table is Minwax Antique Walnut, and the lighter stain is Pecan.

Here you can see it with both leaves extended.

I love how the checkerboard effect shows up even on the sides with the leaves closed.

I wasn’t brave enough to pick out fabric for the chairs for someone else, so with the help of another friend, we took lots of pictures of bolts of fabric and sent them (via iPhone) before she chose this pretty black floral/paisley print.

The fabric on the seats wasn’t really dirty or in bad condition, so I didn’t remove it—I just added a new layer of batting and stapled the new fabric over all…plus a bit of my sleeve…  (whoops!)

And there you have it:  the Two Tone Table!  I really love the look of it.  It wouldn’t have been bad at all in my now-empty front room…

…but alas…my friend came and took it away (yes, from 750 miles away). 

I hope it’s happy in its new home!

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Thanks to It’s So Very Cheri, Stylish Once Again, My Repurposed Life, and Simple Home Life for featuring this project!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Topsy Turvy Tuesdays
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Someday Crafts’ Whatever Goes Wednesday
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
Stylish Once Again	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	Thrifty Décor Chick

[ Read More ]