Crazy Eight!

Like all good hoarders, I have a storage shed full of crap  cool stuff. We are trying to get rid of 

that storage shed full of crap cool stuff and have begun to purge the contents. I knew for the past year

that I had a great 8-sided table in that storage shed. Every time I mentioned certain things I wanted 

out of that shed, the boys scoffed at me and the Hubs scoffed louder. No one was willing to fight the shed to retrieve my treasures. 

Enter a PLAN: "Of course, Hubs, I will be glad to help you 

take stuff out of the storage shed to get rid of."

(To which I was really thinking, "YES! I can get my octagon table, my tuxedo chairs, my vintage Coca-Cola machine, ,etc.......")

 So off we went to begin the dismantling of the shed. I have no idea how this cute little table got into the back of the shed. That is what happens when you have boys moving you. By the one millioneth piece of furniture they could care less about any of it. That is how the shed caught so many of my treasures. Excuse the scary picture, but I got the 8-sided table rescued. (and a few other things!!)

 We had this table in our dining room in Kansas, as a small serving table. The dining room in our old Victorian was also octagon shaped. This table nestled into the end of the octagon. Not only that, but all our wood work in that house was the groove sides, then the bulls eyes on the corners of each door and window. The table nestled under three windows. Probably no one but myself noticed the similarities between the octagon-bulls-eye-table and the octagon-bulls-eye-dining room but me. But I loved the perfect fit. When my mom first gave me the table it was a very rough wood stain. I painted it a flat creamy white probably twelve or more years ago. (Back when people still found it odd that one would "ruin" a good piece of furniture for no reason!) 

 So last week I grabbed my AS Duck Egg chalk paint and just hit a few places on the long-ago-painted-cream-table. I was not in the least careful. 

 I got the bulls-eyes and some of the grooves on the legs. My plan was to then go back over everything with AS Old White. But the joke was on me. I had no Old White, and I was not going to drive the 45 minute trip to get some. So I pulled out a can of $1 "mistake" paint from Lowe's bargain bin. It was a cream color as well, but not the same shade I had used long ago. I mixed the paint with water, going about 3 parts paint to one part water. 

 I let that dry then began to sand it. Honestly, I really did miss the ease that the chalk paint will sand off. My water-downed-cheapo-paint still worked. It just took a little more elbow grease. I hit a few of the bulls-eyes with my sander. 

 I sanded down parts of the grooved legs. This octagon table has six legs, so there were a lot of grooves to hit. I got just enough Duck Egg showing through then I waxed with some clear wax and a spoonful of dark wax mixed in. 

 In some places the original wood shows through. In some places that long-ago cream shows through and in some places the Duck Egg chalk paint shows through. It is just the right amount of distressing, to look like a well-used, well-loved table. 

 I don't know where the eight-sided table is going to end up, but for the fall season, it is sitting by the front door acting as a pseudo-foyer. 

 I love having the table back in the house instead of in that 'ole storage shed. I am sure my sons and Hubs feel the same way, they just don't have the words to verbalize it!

 I have a few more projects coming from the "purging" of the storage shed. In the meantime, I am just happy to have my Crazy Eight table, with the new paint job, sitting proudly in the house!

Joining these parties:

Thrifty Treasures

Metamorphosis Monday

Wow Us Wednesday
Furniture Feature Friday