Paris Grey Coffee Table

It's been busy and funky around here for the past few weeks.   Along with getting ready for 3 birthdays that hit at once this time of here (the twins and the hubs!), half the family decided to take on allergies to Goldenrod and the tissues have been flying!  I was hit hard for a couple of days and about the time I got better, I thought it a good idea to dump 2 - 20 year old spice bottles of cayenne pepper into the trash at once.

A plume of dust followed.

Let's just say that the next two hours added insult to injury regarding my allergies.  Thank God for snorting milk though!  I swear my sinuses were bleeding from all that pepper!

Moral to the Story:  20 year old cayenne pepper is STILL as potent as the stuff you just bought yesterday!

So here's on of the projects I finished up.  It's a old, old Duncan Phyfe-style coffee table that was given to me by a gentlemen who was cleaning out his booth at Angel's Antiques one day last year.  The hubs and I just happen to be walking by at the right time when he asked us if we wanted them..... for free!

There were to end tables that also came with it that I painted and sold a few months ago:

I got all zinc-y on those two!

I decided to go with a more quiet French look on the coffee table though.  After some tightening up and filling up gaps here and there......

I decided that the leather inserts had to go!  I wanted to keep them, but they were coming up everywhere and I didn't want to run the "risk" of them popping up again after I was finished.  Also, I kept hearing the word "Tray" drift in and out of my thoughts.

Let me tell you, those were the nastiest things to take off too!  Almost as bad as snorting Goldenrod!

Afterwards, I decided to prime this piece before painting.  It was an experiment in how much paint I would actually use after priming.  Took only one coat of ASCP in Paris Grey!  Then it was onto making my tray for the top of the table.

I just took some wooden moulding that I had stashed and used a hand mitre saw to quickly cut some pieces and fit them in.

Even though it was so easy, I'm still trying to figure out why the hubs was so shocked that I did it by myself.  I guess he's still getting use to my name and the word tools in the same sentence.

After gluing them in place, the moulding got a couple of coats of ASCP in Old White:

Then I whipped out a stencil and dabbed the image very lightly in Old White as well:

A little dry brushing of Old White in some spots, a coat of wax, some light distressing, and some dark wax here and there and she was done!

LOVE those legs!

One thing you will notice about the piece is that I removed the two folding end pieces.  I wanted a simple look for this table without all the fuss of end pieces folding up and down.  Those of us who have kids know the "issues" we have with kids folding them up, then down.... then up, then down.... then

You get it!

Plus, I just loved the Greek-inspired legs and really wanted those to show, whereas having the end pieces constantly hid them!

Must get back to work now as I'm doing the final waxing on an antique iron bed today!

Bonne création!

Vintage Resurrections