Showing posts with label industrial country. Show all posts
Showing posts with label industrial country. Show all posts

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Modern Rustic End Tables

Leather tops on tables.

You know the ones...they only looked good until someone spilled a drink or burned a hole in the leather. Well my latest project was a textbook case of yucky leather tables in dire straits and in serious need of a makeover.



 I started by removing the four leather inserts on the end tables.

What was I left with?

A clean slate and lots of potential.


When I removed the leather, I was left with a slight dip on the tops. I've seen a lot of makeovers where people use yard sticks to resurface the tops and i thought i could possibly do that. But I really wanted a cleaner look, something without all the advertisements that you see on yard sticks.
So I decided to use plain strips of wood cut at different lengths. I sanded, stained and sealed each one to create a rustic look and feel. I know it looks like I used different stains on the wood, but I didn't. Each piece of wood took the color differently, a pleasant surprise!

Now the hard part...trying to organize and fit them all in place, It was like a puzzle nightmare! I was sorta regretting my design decision a this point. {'Oh Crystal, you've had better ideas than this', I thought over and over in my head!}

I didn't throw in the towel, and man oh man am I glad I didn't!


Once I had all of the strips in place, I painted the table bodies with Annie Sloan Old Ochre and Old White, heavily distressing and then sealed them with clear and dark wax. To finish off the look, I tossed the old hardware and updated it with some new chunky silver cup pulls.


A few more shots of the tables.





Despite the moments of doubt and frustration, I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

Well, that's all for today. I hope you have enjoyed this project makeover and I've inspired you to take on a leather top makeover of your own!


Friday, September 26, 2014

Reclaimed Coffee Table {First in a Series}

Sometimes we run across some junk that is beyond unique and packed with character. When this happens, I usually jump up and down, squeal with excitement and completely annoy my husband with all my elaborate ideas and brainstorming.

Well this find, certainly takes the cake! Let me explain...

My husband was out running errands one afternoon and noticed a old abandoned farm not far from our house. As luck would have it, there was a pickup truck in the driveway, so P pulled in and sparked up a conversation. As it turned out, the gentleman had just sold the property and needed to have a few things removed before the closing. He told my husband to go ahead and look through the old train cars and make him an offer if there was anything we wanted. In one of those train cars was so much historical significance...I was out of my mind with excitement.

You see, back in the 1950s Scott County tore down the original Sheriff's Residence and Jail (which was original constructed in 1882) so that they could build a new jail. The county auctioned off all the wood, doors, fixtures etc to the public. Well, this gentleman's father bought a large amount of that material and had it stored in a train car on this property for all these years.

The Sheriff's Residence and Jail are off to the left in this picture. We have been researching like crazy to find a image of the inside of the buildings, but haven't been successful just yet. We'll keep trying!!

We've been waiting for the right idea to hit us before we did anything with the pieces we salvaged that day. Then it hit us, we could make a series of tables with the floor boards. And since my husband is a pretty good (really quite awesome) metal fabricator, he could craft the table bases in various ways so each creation is one of a kind.

Here' a look at the first one we've created. This one is made from reclaimed, tongue and groove floor boards from the Sheriff's Residence and Jail. All those beautiful layers of white and green chippy paint are sealed with several layers of poly. The frame is 1.5"steel tubing...making for a perfect balance of rustic and industrial. 

Dimensions: 53"l x 24"w x 18"h

 Most certainly a unique, handcrafted conversation starter or statement piece! And the stories that those boards could tell if only they could talk...