$40 Make Over

Looking at the title, how many of you thought that I got a make over?? Come on :) Be honest. Well, I didn't but my dining room table did. And no, it's not the one Richard built me. It's a $40 find that came with a set of four chair covers and a huge custom framed picture. Don't worry the picture is getting booted. I'm replacing it with a mirror :) You can always make something better right?

This is no ordinary table. To some of you it might be...shame on you. This thing is at least 40 years old. How perfect is that? It cost me $40. But it comes with two leaves and 6 caned back upholstered chairs. The piece is gorgeous. 

The design process for the piece was a quick one. I knew I wanted to stain the table at first. But after stripping it( a pain in my b-u-t-t!!), I saw that the wood it was built with wouldn't turn out like this gorgeous table that I found on Restoration Hardware. 

Of course it would have been stained in Minwax's Classic Gray Wood Stain. Of course...right?

Well, that just wasn't in the plans for this table. You can always stain darker, never lighter. And I wasn't about to sand this thing with all of it's nooks and crannies all the way down to bare wood. I would have destroyed it.

I'm going to share some before and after's with you all and over the next few days I'm going to share with you how I did the makeover.

A Chair

Some detailing around the chair. Now the chairs haven't been touched. I've only removed the back cushions on two of them. I'm still deciding on if I want to paint the caning or not.

Isn't the caning gorgeous?

Front of the table leaves

The table top. Imagine if I had stained this??

Table edge detail

I love the details of this table. At first when we brought it home, I was going to refinish it and sell it. But then I found out it was a trestle table(something that I have wanted forever) and I just had to keep it. So the homemade Farmhouse table has found a new home on our back deck with the two benches. I hate to see it out there but hey, now we don't have to build a back porch table and benches!

Trestle base

Brass detail on the feet.

The finished prduct. Sorry for the mess. I just applied a coat of Polycrylic to the top of the table.

The color f the table took me a minute to decide on. I picked out four grays. Two from Benjamin Moore and two from Sherwin Williams. I chose Ben Moore because Ace Hardware is right up the street(and the have a 10% military discount). But I chose a completely different color. I chose Pebble Beach and I used Benjamin Moore's Advance after a few email consultations from Kate at Centsational Girl. Thank you so much for your advice, it turned out beautifully!!  I love this gray it's so soft and bright!! I also discovered, after accidentally painting my wall, that it would serve as a good paint color for the kids bathroom. Which I plan to do after The Hubbs goes to sea :) 

And look...a trash bag... I should have edited it out. Oh well. Now you know we're normal.

Look at that detail. It was a PAIN to strip. But I'll do it again :) I decided to paint the brass. I didn't think this color gray with it's blue hue would look good with brass details. Especially if the brass were restored to all it's brassy glory.

Oh look,  bad washed out picture of the top of the table. The lighting in this room is terrible. I need to invest in a new lense. Anniversary gift maybe? Hehehe...

So there it is. The Before and After's. What do you think? Please weigh in. As hard as this was, I really liked doing it. When I was finished I had a sense of accomplishment. It took a total of a week and a half to do. Or about 10-12 hours. If I hadn't of stripped it I think it would have been 4-6 hours.

Thanksgiving Recap

Our Thanksgiving was a quiet one this year. It was just us, no family or friends to celebrate it with. And you know what? I kind of like it like that. Sometimes lol. It's good to have friends and family around to celebrate together but it's good to have that quality family time. 

This year was bittersweet for me. My grandmother passed away earlier this August to bone marrow cancer. And having Thanksgiving at her house was pretty much a mandatory thing. I believe the only times that weren't spent at her house for this holiday were when we were stationed in Washington state or when my grandparents would come to our house for Thanksgiving. I am truly thankful and blessed to have had her to myself, really, all these years. I grew up 10 minutes from her and my grandfather and I got to see her pretty much every week of my life. So it was nice just having this holiday be just the 6 of us.

One a more upbeat note...

This Turkey day had the traditional: Turkey(of course!), cranberry sauce(the jellied kind), stuffing, sweet potatoes(in our house that's a must), gravy and baked macaroni and cheese. But there were some new items brought to the table. A new kind of stuffing. This stuffing was completely homemade( a first for me) with Ezekiel bread, cranberries, butter and sage. And I must say it's a permanent part of this holiday menu. Rolls that were packaged and not made from Pillsbury( never doing that again. ALWAYS go Pillsbury). Pineapple Cheddar Cheese Casserole. Now I know it sounds gross, but it is so delicious!!! It's cheesy, sweet and a little crunchy. This recipe is super easy to find. And all you need is chopped pineapple, Ritz crackers, butter and sugar. It's super simple and scrumptious!!! Now of course for my montage of pictures. Well it really isn't a montage. No one was dressed or should I say properly prepared for picture taking. And some pictures I was fiddling with my camera settings. I'm learning how to take decent pictures in very poor lighting.

Okay. so here's the bird...naked, rubbed down and seasoned. I believed I was set. My mom purchased me this ab-so-dorable bakery set from Temp-tations. I love them. They're cute and charming and they come with little glass "cutting" boards and iron carrying caddies. So I have this new set and I'm thinking to myself "I've got this in the bag, er, baking dish". Obviously, based on the picture you can see that I didn't. That sucker was too big for my beautiful bakeware. It generously overflowed the sides, like my feet generously didn't fit into my heels when I was pregnant with a not-so-small baby turkey(Blake). So being the good wife, I sent the hubs off to the store on Turkey day to brave the crowds and buy me one of those aluminum roasting pans. Then it worked, of course.

Blake was out for a one two count before the bird even went into the oven. Isn't he so peaceful when he's sleeping?? 

The Allen Tribe(except for me). All cuddled and enjoying football, well, the same can't be said for Maddalaena. She just was not having it. See I told you that everyone wasn't up to picture taking. 

Part of the tablscape. Don't mind the bad table decorating. I'm trying something new. It's called caring about what your house looks like during a holiday dinner. I'm trying to establish routine and tradition in our home. Seeing as there won't be anymore gatherings at grandma's house, I know am choosing to become that. So HomeGoods has become my favorite store, next to TJMaxx, for home decorating. Simply because I can't afford PotteryBarn which is in fact my most favorite store. Ballard Designs is a close, almost tied second.

Oh, and I like Pier 1 too. 

Burlap is all the rage this year in home decorating. Ballard Designs has these burlap curtains. PotteryBarn has these super cute jute storage bags. Restoration Hardware has a burlap upholstered chair. Just to name a few.

Top partial of my tablescape.

And the bird!!! Buttered, seasoned and roasted to perfection. As a matter of fact, when we transported this turkey to the platter(we had to drain the stoke to make gravy) one of the wings fell off it was so done. It was like "I'm ready eat me. EAT ME!!". You know how that goes. When you cook something so well, that the food just begs you to eat it. I won't applaud myself too much. Because my store bought rolls turned into one of those hard biscuit things you dunk in coffee. Anyone? Email me if you know the word because I am completely drawing a blank.

The delicious stuffing in the background along with the Pineapple Cheddar Cheese Casserole.

Green Bean Casserole(The Hubs favorite), baked macaroni and cheese, burnt to a crisp rolls, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce.

The Hubs carving the Turkey. In my family the men carve the birds. I'm not sure why. It's either a head-of-the-house thing or because-they're-good-at-it-and-it-floats-their-ego sorta thing.

Blake, enjoying his portion of the Turkey day meal. The whole time he was eating, he was smiling. It was so cute! But I couldn't be sure if it was because he liked it or that he was gaseous. He's been having some raunchy butt burping sessions recently.

I love these crackle glass creations by Yankee Candle. I always drool over their accessories collection every year dog earing and circling the things I want. I leave little hints for The Hubs(which he apparently NEVER gets) at least every other day. 

Another upclose shot of my "tablescape". 

Not sure if he's happy or passing gas. I just can't tell :)

How was you're Thanksgiving? Did you spend it with family? Preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Or did you watch football and pass out with you fly unzipped and a hand in your pants? I'd love to hear about it.