Monday, March 4, 2013

A Beachy Striped Coffee Table & An Almost Awkward Situation

Happy Monday! I hope you're not lagging because it's the first day of the week! Here to perk you up: a picture of this beautiful table I painted!
Isn't she pretty?! She didn't start out that way. In fact, she was a rescue!  Here's where the almost awkward situation comes in...

A couple of weeks ago a fellow Air Force wife on base posted on Facebook that she was tossing a coffee table and some end tables out on her curb and they were up for grabs. I headed out to check the tables out because we were currently looking to put a coffee table in the guest room to create a "man cave" and we needed side tables for our bedroom. What I found when I arrived were 3 tables in very good shape, just in need of a little facelift!
The Tables
The Coffee Table "Before"
I scrubbed the tables up really good and cleaned out all of the little crevices then gave them a quick sanding. Then I primed them all, I love Kilz spray on primer the original kind. It is so easy, dries quickly, and covers every little thing. I use it on everything. Then I gave the tables about 2 coats of an antique white color I got from Home Depot and let them dry overnight. The next day I distressed them all and the side tables were finished!
I used painter's tape on the top of the coffee table to tape off some stripes and painted them a turquoise-y color I got a little sample pot of from Ace Hardware. After the stripes dried I sprayed on a coat of MinWax to seal in the paint job and also for easy clean-up. Coffee tables are a high traffic area and need to be easily cleanable! I was super happy with the end product.
Oh wait, are you asking yourself where the awkward part comes in? Right, here goes. So after the paint dried and I had obsessed over the tables enough (I was really, really in love with them!) I came to the realization that we really didn't need them. I'm already seeing that a "man cave" isn't going to happen, we have enough guests coming this month and planning to come in the future that we are going to need 2 full-time guest rooms. Unfortunately you only need 1 coffee table per house pretty much and ours is only 2 months old, so replacing that wasn't really an option. So I decided to put the table set up for sale. I calculated my time spent on the tables along with the cost of products used and came up with a reasonable price. Even though the tables were Free, my time and the paint are not! I listed them on Craigslist and on a few local "for sale" Facebook pages. The tables garnered interested buyers almost immediately and I felt so proud that people really liked my tables!! One very interested buyer's name stood out to me, and I couldn't figure out why. I thought about it and realized... she was the same person who threw the tables out originally! ...Awkward. I sent her a text to let her know that she was more than welcome to purchase the tables from me but she should be aware that they are her old tables, just painted bright and pretty! I was nervous, was she going to be mad?! Would she think I just took the tables to paint and make a profit?! Did I look like a total jerk?! I waited anxiously for her to reply. Her response? "WOW! You are amazing!! I would never have thought to do that!" Siiiiiiigh of relief. Turns out she STILL wanted to buy the tables and came by the next day to pick them up. She was so gracious and complimentary of my work and I realized I didn't have anything to be nervous about in the first place. Now the tables have a new (old) home and very happy owners and I feel kinda crazy good about my artistry! Whoo! And in case you didn't get enough stripe-y table goodness here's a couple more pictures:
Have a good week everybody!
 

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