And Yet, I Digress....

 It was the kind of week where I swore way more than I should have, and hugged much less than I wanted to. Between heated conversations with my boss out on the acoustically enhanced loading dock, to understaffing so horrendous I found myself stepping in for overtime multiple times. One of my favorite coworkers is grieving the loss of a good friend, who also happens to be my customer as well, and I can't even give her a completely non-covid-approved deep felt hug of sympathy.

These Covid cooties suck. 

I have been finding projects to fill my time when the talk in my head gets to loud. I've had this coffee table in the basement for the better part of ten years. My cousin gave it to me, as she was getting remarried and it had been a wedding gift from her first marriage in 1993-ish. I used it for a bit, but when Oldest was around five he wanted to fix it, and tapped it with a hammer. Needless to say, the glass insert didn't survive his Bob The Builder phase. 

So, it's been in the basement, waiting until it could become one of my projects.  First thing that had to go was the 90's style golden oak finish. 

Paint stripping is not for sissies my friends.  It is hard work. What didn't come off with the stripper my sander made quick work of.  Once stripped down to bare wood, I started with the stain...

The gray stain gives it a more casual look, which is what I was going for.  The Hubs of course didn't like the lighter color, and insisted we do another coat. Three coats later, we ended up with a fairly consistent gray stain, with only nuisances of wood grain coming through.  At this point, I decided to get risky, and add some black accents and a pop of color for the inside.

It took a few tries, and several swatches of colors against the gray to decide on an ultra matte baby blue. 

I spent a few days scrolling through pages and pages of drawer pulls to find the right ones.  It seems I have every expensive taste.  Eventually I settled on this art deco style, rustic, but not too harsh against the gray wash. I also wanted to add small casters to the bottom to make it easier to move since this sucker is hea-vy. But that didn't quite work out.

I ordered the glass from a local company downtown. The fit was perfect and they had it ready in a day for me. 

And as luck would have it, my newest blog books arrived right on time to be the showcase inside the shadow box along with my scrapbooks of our adventures with the boys. It's a coffee table of coffee table books! Win, Win.

I should be happy, right?  Another piece saved from the basement. 

But now we really have no space in the living room.  I mean, like where is the dog going to roll around scratching her back like a lunatic? As luck would have it, the neighbor has been watching my progress and loves the table, apparently it's just her style.  And, she's moving in with her fiancé on the 7th and has no furniture.

I hope she likes double chocolate chip cookies.

**** Ed Note: My blog books have all been done by Blog to Print in the past.  For the "new" blog I decided to go with Pixxibooks and I could not be happier!  The price was in line with other companies and it came in a week.  I receive no compensation for mentioning them, this isn't that type of blog. ****