I feel like I could title more than a couple of my posts that… But today’s post is really about a road side find that was exactly what our living room needed! And, it cost me $0 to do the makeover! Win, win!!
Let me set the scene, pawn the kids off on my mom { Thanks, Oma!! } and head out for a drive with Michael for a coffee in Tatamagouche, where we always end up for a coffee. Coffee in hand, we decide to take the scenic route back home, driving some roads we haven’t travelled in a while, which is one of my favourite things to do. I can’t help but look at the piles of ‘garbage’ at the ends of the drive ways, I’ve scored lots of goodies that way. And sure enough, I spot what I know to be a solid hardwood end table. So, I do what anyone who likes to remake furniture would do, I whip the car around and pull up at the end of the drive way. I had pulled a back muscle earlier in the day and sitting wasn’t doing it any favours, so I crawl out of the car, look the piece over quickly and then try to lift it….barely left the ground! Michael had to come to my rescue and help me put the end tables in the back of the car, much to his dismay. He’s isn’t fond of my road side rescues.
When he tells the story, it involves shot guns and being run off the property, but it wasn’t nearly that exciting or dangerous. 😉 He loves to juice up his tales….
When I got it home, I discovered that the missing knob was inside the drawer, which made it even easier to plan a makeover. I knew I wanted this piece to go in between the two Barcelona chairs in the living room but the colour was the question. My first instinct was to paint it navy, but I secretly, or not so secretly, want to paint my walls navy so then it would blend in. White would be too bright, the coffee table is already teal, so I decided on grey. Rosemary and Steve of Phillips & Chestnut had gifted me a pot of Homestead House Black Wax for Christmas, and this seemed like the perfect piece of furniture to try it on.
Game plan in place, I went to work. I washed the piece down and gave it a quick sand…honestly, not something I do every time. I’m not a huge fan of prep work. 🙂 I used a special mix of Fusion Mineral Paint in Ash and Casement to mix the right grey for me, not too dark, not too light. I painted a table for a friend in a similar mix and really liked it, so I combined some leftover paint and went at it! Two coats of paint later, and I was ready to wax. Let me tell you, that wax is dreamy! The knobs got a quick spray of black paint.
Here’s a close-up of on of the details:
Besides needing a table between the chairs, we also needed a lamp on this side of the room. With the Christmas lights down, it seemed dark and glum in there. So, I tried to come up with a plan for a hanging lamp with an old Ikea lamp cord I had, some old lamp shade frames and then somehow wall mount it….but that was a bust. Nothing I had would work with anything else I had and I’m sure I could’ve made something or other, but I wanted something sooner rather than later. So, I dug into my stash and found some old wooden lamp bases I had bought a few years back at a yard sale. I also had a lamp shade from a lamp I broke…ooops….and they actually worked together!! Let there be light!
I added my crazy fern, tucked under the lamp and it adds just the right amount of homey-ness. I love pulling in the driveway at night, seeing the warmth of the lamp and the randomly pokey bits of the fern in the front window. I also stuck a tray with antlers and some wooden beads on the bottom shelf. I’m thinking I may look for a basket to stick some magazines in, there seems to be a few around…or maybe some the games the girls are currently loving. But for now, it’s just fine.
I follow this account on Instagram, Ferpie and Fray, and they always line their drawers with pretty paper. I thought this little makeover deserved a little extra. So, again, I dug through my stash of scrapbook paper and found something I thought might suit my living room.
I think, all things considered, this zero dollar makeover was quite a success! What do you think?
To be continued,
Lori
