The Tables Are Turned!

It was a day of painting tables yesterday.  Check out the before/after shots of some of the tables I've been working on.

This table above was a quick fix. Just some sanding and a new coat of creamy white paint.  The table below was a mess. Chippy, peely paint all over.  I started sanding it with my orbital sander but my wrist went numb after 20 minutes. My darling husband even volunteered to take a shift, to no avail.  I ended up using a paint stripper to take off 4 layers of white paint and brought it down to the natural wood.  I then primed it and painted it "Ivory White" by Benjamin Moore, #925, one of my favorite whites.

 

I promised to show you a picture of the finished outdoor table that Ken built after our glass bistro table broke.  I stained the wood with a teak finish and put three coats of low luster polyurethane over it.  It's not walmanized lumber, so we don't know how long it will last out here, but it bought us some time. 

The drop leaf table below I bought an an antique store a couple of weeks ago.  It was outside and looked like it had been rotting there for a few years.  I've been too busy and couldn't muster the energy to tackle it before yesterday, but the sun was shining, the birds were singing and I already had the paint stripper out...so I had no excuse to put it off any longer. 

It is far from perfect, but that's what cottage style is all about, right?!  I have one of these on my sunporch and we use it all the time.  We eat dinner on it in the fall and spring when it's not too warm in there. The dropped leaves come up and are supported by wood underneath. I think I'm going to finish it off with a coat of "tudor brown" bri-wax that I bought at Allegan Antiques today. It's a shade lighter than the dark brown wax.

And last but not least, we bought this at a Douglas garage sale, (thanks Paul and Michelle). It was forest green and came with 6 folding chairs for $40.  I used 4 cans of spray paint for another $20 and now I have a nice large table for entertaining. Again, not the table of my dreams, but it'll do, and the price was right!

Okay, so I may have to replace the $5 umbrella that I bought at a sale last year. That's as far as it will open. I am thinking of covering it with some thatch and turning it into a tiki bar umbrella. I'll keep you posted!

And, just when you thought it couldn't get any better, I had to include a shot of the nicest Macker Tournament Basketball players around. These guys should've taken home the hardware for Sportsmanship, but instead came home with scratches, bruises and sore backs.  They came in 4th out of 15 teams.  Not bad for a bunch of  "has-beens" in their 40's!! We didn't hit any garage sales on the way to Ludington and back, but a good time was had by all!