The Widow's Workshop: It's Super Bowl Sunday and I am so Excited!!!

Not really! At least, not about super bowl. I really don't care about the game - except that it's an excuse to eat snack food.

So what am I excited about, you ask. I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED THE TABLE AND BENCH I STARTED MONTHS AGO!

It all started last summer with some table legs I found at the local Re-Store Store. There they were, just waiting for someone to want them. Trouble was, they were too short to be used as individual legs. But, still, I wanted them. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of these forlorn legs. And, once I got them home, they sat there for several weeks. Then, I decided that I wanted to build a table that I loved, but would sell to someone else, someone who would love the fact that the table would be made from mostly reclaimed materials, that would show the natural beauty of common lumber, and would be perfect in their home! So, I looked around at what materials I had on hand, and there were these short legs! I combined them with some reclaimed common 2x materials and created two pedestals.

Then the pedestals sat there for a few more weeks. Finally, I constructed the table top. Then I built a bench, then I added some trim to the table, and more to the bench. All the while, I'm having to work around this huge table in my garage. I'd hoped to have it ready by Thanksgiving - in time for a family to sit around as they gave thanks for their many blessings. That didn't happen! Then, I was shooting for having it completed by Christmas - and, again, that didn't happen! I just kept walking around the table, piling things on it, moving the bench around, and pushing the table out of the way!

I posted it on FaceBook - people thought it was beautiful, but it's a big table and it needs a fair amount of room. I had several people express interest, if only there were chairs, too. But, I wasn't going to build chairs or another bench. But, one day, while shopping at a favorite thrift store for a small pedestal for another project for a client, I stumbled upon the perfect pedestal table for my project, that just happened to include 4 chairs.

You can sort of see these ugly chairs in this picture of the pedestal table that I purchased.

You should see this pedestal refinished and ready for it's new round table top - next project I post!

They cleaned up fairly well.

The chairs were really, really ugly. But, I stacked them outside just in case I found a use for them before they got ruined by the rain. And, then, one night when I couldn't sleep, I had an Ah-ha moment. There were four of those ugly chairs, and maybe if I changed up the shape a bit, and painted them, they would work for the table. So, that's just what I did.

I struggled with the stain for this table, I struggled with the finish on the pedestal, I struggled with chairs or no chairs, 1 bench or 2. I so happy to be done with the struggle. I found the perfect color stain (Minwax Provincial), the paint is just what I wanted (Annie Sloan Graphite - like a Pottery barn black), the bench is a good size and will seat 3 big adults or 4 tiny rear ends easily, and there are chairs that are kind of funky, but work well with the table.

It's now sitting in my living room - at least it's out of the garage - but, please share with anyone you know who might be interested in purchasing the table, bench and chairs, or any one of these pieces.

And, here it is!