Turning the Table

The annual Junk Jaunt through central Nebraska lured me home to Kearney again this past September. My niece, Chelsie, and my mommy, Jolene and I hit the road early in search of vintage finds and freshly-baked kolaches. One of the items I couldn't pass by was a cute table in a shop in Ravenna. Even through the grime and chipped paint, I knew that it was the right scale for a side table in the great room. I couldn't resist the $2 price tag, either. Let's see if Scott was successful in helping me transform my little treasure.

This table had definitely seen better days. It's construction is a mystery; it seems like it was made of twigs but Scott deduced that the texture of the wood was manmade, perhaps by smacking a hammer in an even pattern around each piece. The blue roll of tape is filling in for a missing piece of leg.

The first order of business was to even out the three remaining legs. Scott used his laser level to mark where to cut each.

The M-12 multi-tool with the reciporcating blade made quick work of the task.

The replacement leg began as a 1"-square piece of leftover pine. Yet another example of why we don't thrown out perfectly good wood! You just never know when you will need to hewn a table leg. The process began by tracing the diameter of the finished leg.

The benchtop belt sander slowly-but-surely sanded away the excess pine.

Scott used a pocketknife to replicate the texture of the original leg. The length of the finished leg is indicated with a black ring of Sharpie ink.

Scott drilled a hole to receive a wood peg . . .

. . . and added plenty of wood glue to secure the peg in place.

A little painter's tape kept the new leg in place while the glue dried. Scott lopped off the excess pine the next day.

A good scrubbing with a soapy rag revealed that the most recent coat of paint was light pink. Scott quickly dispatched any evidence of pink with a good coat of bronze metallic paint (leftover from painting our register vents.)

Ta Da!

The finished product is sturdy enough to hold my cup of coffee and looks perfect next to the chair in the corner of the great room. Not bad for $2 and a couple of hours of Scotty Time! 

Stay Tuned for Our Next Adventure!