Nightstands:
The nightstands were built from free pallets. Shane pulled them apart and Jess and I cut them to size.
Jessica got off to a rough start with the nail gun, but I promise she got better as we went along. Practice makes perfect. Luckily this was the back, and since I'm not much of a perfectionist we didn't waste any time pulling these back out.
After building them, we lightly sanded (I liked the rough look) and then whitewashed them. If I had it to do over again we would sand and paint prior to putting them together.
Here's the finished product. Remember they were free.
Coffee Table:
I bought the coffee table at a yard sale when I was working on the nursery. I paid $50 for 3 items: a dresser (I converted to a changing table), a side table (also for the nursery) and this coffee table (my 'child-proof' version- as I love my current coffee table and refuse to change it in any way). Since I have still not resigned to giving up my current coffee table, I lent my child-proof table to Jessica for the near future.
Originally it looked like this (kids art project?):
After applying a chemical stripper (I got weird looks from my mom and sister when I asked Shane to go buy a stripper), we sanded with a course 60 grit sandpaper. Since I might use it in my own house soon, I wanted to keep a rough and raw look. I left some paint remnents and then applied antique oil.
The end result:
Side Tables:
We found 3 side tables at a thrift store. Two were $4 each and the third was $10. Not too bad to average $6 per table. All we had to do was sand them down (first with 120 grit and then a 320 grit paper) and spray them white. Although I like the look of spray, I think it is a much more economical route to paint by brush and roller. We ended up trying the cheap $1 spray paint only to upgrade to the $3 paint. Even then we had to buy one can of the expensive $7 paint/primer-in-one for the final coat. I love the high gloss look.
Here's the retro $10 table that Jess picked out. I love it! This is the only before picture I could find. Somehow we managed to get all 3 side tables, the delicate lamp shades, 7 throw pillows, myself, mom, sister, and Hudson (with car seat) in my Maxima.
After: (Although I am now noticing that I didn't add the hardware back on for the picture)
Now for the table I found. It's much more traditional, and I actually like the retro one a lot better. Too bad there weren't 2.
After:
I had talked about building a table from scratch, so my mom calls me one Saturday morning to tell me that she has found table bases at a salvage store. She sends me a picture and immediately calls me to let me know it's on its way. I had not yet received it, so she resent it. Then a few seconds later she sends it again. Eventually I got all 5 pictures of the exact same table base (and several other pictures of other bases). It was only $5, so I figured we couldn't go wrong even if we didn't use it.
I redesigned the top of the table over and over again in my mind. In the end it was actually decided by chance. I have had a pile of wood that Shane and I collected when one of our neighbors tore down their deck. I've used it for a few small projects, like our mantel and artwork for the nursery. But I have never had a clear vision of what I would do with the remaining pieces. When I went to the wood pile, a few pieces were laid together in a way that made me think of a table top. I already had a 3/4" plywood board cut to 3'x3'. We whitewashed the boards and then pieced together the random sizes to lay out a pattern 3" larger than the plywood on all sides. After cutting the other boards down to size, we flipped the boards over, positioned the plywood and screwed in each board. We used finishing nails to secure thin slats to cover the edges of the plywood. And that was it. We were planning on painting the base, but after assembling the top we ended up loving the base as is.
Taaah Daaah...
