Repurposed Craft Table

After the hubby and I found out we had a little bundle of joy on the way, I had to give up my craft room to a nursery.  Most of my stuff went to storage totes and miscellaneous places around the house.  I decided it had been long enough and I wanted a space to do my crafts again.  The only available space for a craft table was in the toy room!  I thought I can make this work, ha ha ha.  (The toy room is only an 8x10 space)  In my mind I had a picture of a long tall table with storage on shelving and in the closet.  This would keep little fingers away for a little while.

I already had two table tops that were purchased for $9 bucks each several years ago....several!  One was too small and the other was too big.  But the larger table would pull apart to allow an additional leaf.  So my thought was to disassemble the table and rotate the two pieces to make a narrow long table that would actually fit my space restrictions.  Sounds easy right.  Not so much.  After discussing with my father, he informed me that additional support would have to be added due to the extended length.

Next I had to find legs, but the only thing I had laying around was an old four post water bed that we no longer needed and had some water damage due to a leak.  Hmmm, the posts ended up being the perfect size to fit in the already made leg pockets of the table.  All I had to do was cut them.

Most of the assembly work and modifications were done in my fathers workshop because I don't have a space large enough to work on this size of a table.  But, from the pictures you can see where we added the additional supports.

We used as much of the original skirt as we could, but had to add two additional pieces to the front and back.  Every thing was unscrewed from the table and then refit as best as we could.  Then once we laid out our pieces, we marked on the table top where each corner fit.  This way we could assemble the skirt, add glue and then place it back into position. Those two rather large black braces are actually the old tracks that would allow the table to pull apart for the leaf.  We bolted them back on, but to keep them from moving had to run a bolt through both pieces of the track to keep it from sliding.  My father still wasn't happy with the support and wanted to make sure that the table could be stood on, LOL.  Just in case my monkey boy actually gets onto this table.  So he added a 2x4 down the center to the table length wise.

Here we cut two angle supports, similar to the originals, for the additional skirt pieces we had to insert.

Angled pocket holes were also drilled from old skirting to new skirting.

And last but not least, even though the posts were large enough to fit into the corner pockets they sat flush with the table skirt.  I wanted the legs to sit out about a quarter inch.  So to push them out a bit we added a trimmed piece of wood to fit inside the pocket.  This way the leg will still sit flush against the inside support and wont have a gap when the bolts are inserted.

Time for table legs!  Instead of using the bed post from the bottom up (if that makes sense), I cut my legs from the middle of the post.  Not only did this leave me with enough to get two smaller sets of legs for other projects, but I wont have a rather large section of square post on the top portion of the table leg before it tapers off.  Looked a little goofy to me! 

You can see the full length of the bed post and where I used the middle section.

You can't really tell from the picture, but the left is the tapered end (bottom) of the table leg.

Next the corner had to be cut so it would sit flush in the leg pocket.  Then two pilot holes were drilled for lag screws.  Lag bolts can also be used to prevent stripping out the wood if you need to disassemble your table to move it.  I decided to use screws because this table is so heavy without the legs that I never want to move it again!

Finally, I get to paint!  While modifying the table we realized that in fact the top was not made of wood!  Ack!  It's some kind of really heavy composite something or other, ha!  With that I decided to try chalk paint so I would not have to sand down the top.  First I gave most of the underside and legs a coat of black spray paint.  Then I ran paraffin wax around all the edges and anywhere else I wanted to see the black come through.  I opted for this for two reasons; first, I was unsure how the "wood" table would react with stain and secondly, after painting another piece with the plaster of paris chalk paint I did not want to be sanding all day! 

Next came my top coat of chalk paint, which I sanded and distressed.  But the colors were a little too bright for me so I brushed on minwax stain in dark walnut and let it sit a few minutes before wiping it off.  Once the stain had dried I applied two coats of minwax finishing paste. 

Here is a little close up of how the chalk paint comes off with the wax underneath.  It's almost a little chippy, but be careful not to rub on too much wax in one spot.  A little goes a long way!

And here she is all said and done!  I believe the table sits 39 in. from the floor to table top and is 33"x77".  That just barely fits my 8x10 room. 

Now I just need to get some stools!

Shabby Sewing Drawers and Turntable

Well I was only able to work on two items this past weekend/week.  I had another project partially started which I finished, and I also got around to painting that large turntable I found in Florida for .50 cents.  Several weeks ago I had picked up a set of old sewing drawers that had been removed from the table and still had the frame work.  The frame was a little shaky and needed a brace on one side replaced to make the piece look a little more uniform.  I also added boards, on both the top and bottom, since all the frame work was open.  I plan on using these drawers for craft storage in the craft room, so thought I would try the two tone look to see if I like it.  I painted both the drawers and turntable two tone.  But after finishing the first piece, I decided that I was not so fond of the look and painted over the turntable so it was entirely white.  I distressed these by the same process as the previous pieces (bowl and small turntable) in an earlier post.  Here are a few pictures of the finished pieces. 

You can see where I painted the aqua underneath the distressed spots on the center of the turn table.  I think I like this much better than the obvious two-tone colors on the sewing drawers. 

So with my crafting table almost finished, I will be rethinking how I want to finish the table. 

My father has been helping me with the reconstruction of this table.  I've decided to modify it slightly to better fit the small room I plan to put it in.   In the process we discovered that the top of the table is not hard wood underneath the veneer, but a pressed wood.  So, I'm thinking of trying chalk paint instead.  I will keep you posted on this project as I hope to have it finished in the next week or so. 

Distressing with paint and stain

I've been a little distracted lately with two projects, an office for my hubby's auto garage and a craft/toy room for Gavin and I.  The majority of my time was spent priming the office, and now that I'm not tired from that I'm ready to jump back into the craft room.  I'm currently in the process of up cycling and old bed and table top into my craft table.   However, today I decided that after buying paint for the table and accessories I have no idea how I really wanted the finishes to look.  Sooo, what better way than to make some samples. :o)  I had a few spare metal items, wooden bowls and a lazy susan that I thought might work in the craft room and would be perfect to experiment on.  And here is what I came up with.

 

So what do you think?  I really like how the robins egg blue turned out, looks a little shabby chic I think.  I'm still debating on which to use for my craft table.  I may just use both! 

I was really bad about taking pictures throughout the process but here is what I did to each.

Both the bowl and the lazy susan were unfinished wood.  Since I was just experimenting I didn't take the time to sand these before painting but I would suggest lightly sanding before you paint.  Make sure to use a fine grit and sand along the grain of the wood. 

Lets start with the bowl.  First I slapped on a thin coat of a milk chocolate color.  Once dried, I dry brushed the bowl with a creamy white color.  Dry brushing gave me a more textured look and allowed me to leave some of the base color to show through.    Once the paint was dry I sanded and sanded.  I think I used 120 grit, which will take it off a little quicker.  I sanded places that I thought one would find normal wear on an old bowl.

Once I was happy with the appearance of the bowl, I wiped it down with a dry cloth to remove any excess dust.

Now time for the messy part.  I liberally applied a dark wood stain to the bowl and let it sit a few minutes.  Then using a clean cloth (I used and old white t-shirt) wipe of the stain.  If you want your paint to remain as close the the original color I would suggest wiping off immediately.  Or, apply the stain with a q-tip or cotton ball only to the areas you want stained, leave for a few minutes and wipe clean with a dry cloth.  Alternately, if you prefer a more aged look leave your stain on a few minutes longer before wiping off.

Then let your bowl air dry until no longer tacky.  I decided to finish my bowl with a wax finish for protection and it adds a slight sheen and makes the stained wood look aged.  My favorite is Paste Finishing Wax by Minwax.  I confiscated a long sock from the hubby's sock drawer (I made sure it had a hole to justify ruining it) and buffed the wax all over the bowl. 

I used the same technique for the lazy susan, except I did not paint it brown first.  I used one thick coat of Rust-oleum's Ultra Cover 2x in satin aqua.