I often troll the online garage sales for cheap items to redo. Sometimes I’m lucky and sometimes not so much. I’ve been trying to find a telephone table like from the 50″s. They are the cutest things and have so much potential to be recycled into something more usable today.
On our way back from Waco and weekend travels I came across just such telephone table for next to nothing. The lady had already refurbished it by painting it teal and recovering the seat in gray fabric. She did a great job painting it very smooth and the fabric covered the seat well. When I picked it up I wasn’t sure how I felt about redoing someones redo. At first I wasn’t sure I could do that, it seemed like I was breaking some kinda redo law. I thought I’ll store it for a while then I’ll revisit it and see how I felt.
I went to bed Sunday evening and this piece pulled at me. I’m not kidding when I say I couldn’t sleep for thinking about it. All the possibilities running through my head kept me from a good nights sleep. Lets just say the 5am club at the gym was hard, but I made it through. When I got home I thought I’d take a little nap, but once again this piece took over my thoughts and off to the studio I went. I spent the day in my studio my ideas came hard and fast so fast I completed 3 pieces in one day. At 7pm I cleaned up my tools and went in for the evening. Having a day off from school and being inspired all at once was amazing for this artist. At the end of the day the telephone table was still a telephone table but with so much more to offer.
One of the biggest issues with the telephone table was the side table made it unbalanced. When someone wasn’t sitting in the chair and you sat something on the side table it would fall over. So how to fix that problem required digging into my stash. I knew I wanted something to balance the table but add more function to it. I came across some CD holder boxes I bought for $3 each at a garage sale. I only needed one and I sanded it down to the raw wood. The top was just plain and had no real punch. I went back to my stash to look for wood to cover the top. I was also looking for wood to make a new seat out of . I wanted to add wood to give it a warmer look for the home. If you read the blog about the dresser I did as a wedding gift you will remember I removed the damage top. I used that damaged top to cut a new seat and a top for the wood box I was attaching to the side. This was great wood that needed to be used. The wood is called tiger wood and has the most amazing texture and movement. I sanded it down as well and stained it all out in a dark walnut color. Before I put the new seat and organizing box I sanded the edges of the chair. The paint job was spot on but you are fooling yourself if you think you can chalk paint and be done. Sooner or later that chalk paint will scratch off or chip off if it isn’t sealed with clear coat. I like to give it a worn look so if you do get scratches no one will know it. Once it was all put together it was fantastic. This once telephone chair that was unbalanced is now balanced with a bit of character and charm.
Giving new life to a worn out piece of furniture is so rewarding. I can’t imagine not taking this chair as far as it could be taken. It’s perfect for teaching a child to organize his or her things for the next days events. It could be great by the back door for a messy husband to have a dropping space for all his belongings. The little shelf could serve as a charging station for cell phones. So many things to use this for and so much love went into recycling it. On this hump day I will deliver this great piece to Doc Hollidays Emporium for you to shop. I hope your hump day is very Blue Happy Wednesday!!
