We bought this table before we were even married. It was our very first purchase together. We found it on KSL classifieds just before our apartment lease was going to begin. It was $100 and included 4 chairs. We later bought the other 2 chairs for a total of $20, also on the classifieds.
It served us well and was a great, sturdy table, but we've been itching to replace it for a while now. I didn't love the way it looked with our new floors and since it's a straight view of the table from the front door, I wanted something with more style and personality to greet guests. I've been eyeing tables with the white chunky legs and the dark wood, planked top, to tie in with the flooring. The killer on those is always the price tag though.
Jeremy also wanted a new table, but for different reasons. Whenever we have a big gathering here, we add on a folding table, which is always a little tricky since it's an oval table. He wanted a rectangular table to make it more seamless when we have to add. He also wanted to practice his craftsmanship and construct a new table for us himself.
We went back and forth for a while trying to figure out how to meet all these requirements on our wishlist. He talked about using the base of this table and just replacing the top. I was worried about that since this table included a leaf, and that seemed like a lot of hardware and parts to mess with.
Thanks to Jeremy's dad, we found the perfect solution! He has a lot of rental units and frequently people leave stuff behind when they move out. He told us he had a few tables we could look at. Honestly, my expectations were low. Why would someone leave a nice table behind, right? We were sifting through the piles of stuff when I saw them-- those white legs peeking out from under piles of carpet, wire spools, and other {crap}-- and I knew I'd found the perfect match! We forgot to get a before picture (I hate when we do that!) but the legs were pretty scuffed and dinged and the top was quite warped and in rough shape. His dad just gave us the table so we figured we really had nothing to lose by experimenting and replacing the top of this one. We also decided to make it a little bigger than it was, since we'd be doing work on it anyways. Jeremy basically reconstructed the base of the table modeled after the original, just about a foot longer on each side. You can see below the original pieces on the new top.
We spent about $215 on supplies. More than we had
intended but we wanted to get the hardest wood that we
could for the planks, since we wanted it to hold up to decades of use! Sanding all the pieces and softening the edges was the most time consuming part of it. We basically replaced all the parts, keeping only the original legs (of course!) and the cute little drawers on the ends.
I was in charge of painting the white part on the bottom, and Jeremy handled most of the staining and sealing off the top.
I was a little sad to see our first table go because of the nostalgia there, but we actually made money on it. Looking at comparable tables that were posted on there, we posted ours for $200 and sold it the next day for $175. $50 profit after using it for almost 3 years. Not bad, right? We love KSL!
Plus our new table looks fab! I searched for almost a month to find chairs I liked for it. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for, and Jeremy would get frustrated as he was trying to help search because there was really no consistency to what spoke to me and what I didn't care for. I told him I wouldn't settle on chairs I didn't really love, so he just needed to be patient while I searched the classifieds for just the right ones. I finally found them! A set of 6 for $100.We had folding chairs around the table for a few weeks while I was hunting, but these complete it so much better! (duh, right?) My plan was to paint them white or light light gray, but for now the contrast of the black is really growing on me. I feel like it's maybe a little too dark combined with the dark floors, but I can't decide. It'll probably be one of those things that one day it'll just hit me and Jeremy will come home from work to different colored chairs. :) not that I've ever done that...
(
Don't mind my smudged floors....
I love the scalloped backs! The whole set (table + chairs) makes me smile every time I see it. That's when I know it was a successful project!
Ah. So in love! I may or may not have dreamed about dining chairs the night we got these I was so excited about them. I was watching all these ugly chairs go by on this conveyer belt, and then these beauties came by. I think maybe I spent too much time on KSL...
For a total of $140 we have our dream table! So proud of Jeremy's handiwork and our teamwork in getting this vision to come to life for both of us. We couldn't be happier!
