Furniture Facelift

A couple of things happen after you spend all your money rehabbing and furnishing your house---for me mostly it involves staring at the pile of leftover wood and paint and wondering how to make accent pieces.

This library table has been in my family for years, kind of like Gus--who consequently had been using it as his desk for quite some time. However, now that my mother has an iPad (as she keeps reminding us) and no longer needs a desk, Gus took her desk and schlepped the table off to me. If there's one piece of furniture I don't need it's a table, but I couldn't disregard the sentimental family history and agreed to bring it home.

There really were no decent 'Before" pictures so I borrowed this one...

Library Table

A little white paint and frog tape...

 And voila!

Before you roll your eyes at the idea of painting wood, keep in mind this table was not mahogany (like the before pic) and was in major need of refinishing. It's also extremely easy to sand so I don't feel guilty about taking away the character of the wood. It goes better in my dining room now and that's all that matters.

Why Not?

In the middle of this summer of debauchery, travel, weeks of house guests, major new projects, and nearly depleted bank accounts, I decided to buy living room furniture...because, why not?

The only new piece of furniture I ever purchased was a $600 dresser to match an existing bedroom set and had to be lugged up 47 stairs in a narrow, concrete staircase to my Kalihi Valley cliff house. It sat in a spare bedroom that rarely saw company. When I left Hawaii it stayed in that bedroom, or maybe I sold it on Craigslist. Furniture was the last thing on my mind. 

Like most people that time travel out of Hawaii to the Holocene Epoch, I was enamored with Ikea. A small moving stipend and cheap, unassembled Swedish particle board actually managed to furnish all of Harbor Farm (not to mention the kitchen countertops).

But Trading Up has space. Like real space. And while the dining room serves as Grand Central for dinner, drinks, and late night card games, it's time to use the rest of the house. The living room is so underused this was the only picture I could even find of anyone in it.

Denise lounging post knee surgery.

Denise recovered just fine. I can't say the same for that couch, which in Ikea's defense came from Craigslist.

I tried to find him a new home, but unfortunately, even Craigslist thought it was too good for it. This is the last time I saw it.

But I'm happy the old boy isn't around to see his replacements ;-)