Table turned Bench (Anthropologie Style)

Before we got Gretzky, I came across a super adorable coffee table from A Cat and The Fiddle, a little shop in Rosemount, Minnesota where my parents lived.  Only open every so often, local thrifters and DIYer's rent out these rooms and sell their pieces to the public.  Needless to say it is worth the drive to get there.  You would be shocked at the deals on these one of a kind pieces.  Moving on, I got this coffee table for $70.00 and it was quickly put in the center of our living room.  It would be a shocker if you came over and I didn't talk about it.  Fast-forwarding a couple of months, Shane came home for lunch one day and noticed the top of the table was completely chewed up.  My beloved table had a day with the puppy monster.  Defeated, the table made it's way to the garbage can, but was quickly removed. Something told me to hang on to it, you know, just in case.

I told my parents about my table dilemma.  They were there when I purchased it, after all.  They saw the gleam in my eye.  Dad told me to bring it up to Rosemount and he would put a new top on it.  There it sat in their garage for months.  The intent was there to fix it up, but it didn't happen.  My parents, the traveling gypsies, informed us they were moving yet again, so the table found it's way back home, in our basement where the spiders dwell.

I follow a blog called Little Green Notebook pretty religiously.  We have fairly similar taste in home decor and I just think she is a classy lady with classy ideas, but with a lot more money and time.  Anyway, she blogged about a little DIY table that she turned into a bench for her studio.  Well, this table was so similar to what I had wasting away in the basement, that I decided to give it a go, except with my own little twist.

The Little Green Notebook blogged about how the fabric of her now bench was an Ikea rug.  Because I am a fan of being inventive, I wanted to check out such rug myself.  The rug she used was Lappljung in black.  However, when I went to Ikea, the black and red Lappljung rug was sold out!  All they had left was the blue, and since I drove all the way up there for this damn rug I wasn't driving away with nothin'.  So I snatched it.

Now, you probably could go to a fabric store and buy some remnants for a lot less, but I actually liked the durability of this rug, so it was a no-brainier for me.  The size of the rug was spot on for what I needed too.

The LGN blog went into great detail on how they created the finish on their coffee table base.  Although it's beautiful, let's be real here, ain't nobody got time for that!  I opted to paint it instead.  I had some leftover BM paint in Snow White that I used in an eggshell finish.  This is part of their "off-white" color collection.  As you can see, the color has a hint of serene blue-green to it.

The table was in multiple pieces, thanks to puppy monster.  After a good sanding and some priming, I assembled the table before applying the BM Snow White paint and waited...

Meanwhile, Shane tossed in Anchorman 2-- easily one of the more disappointing sequels-- as I cut and stitched away the Lappljung rug.  In the LGN blog, she used a neon nylon thread from the hardware store.  Well, I didn't feel like going back to the hardware store, so I grabbed some cross-stitch floss from Joann Fabric's for 30 cents, along with three 22x22 2" high density foam squares and batting.  After coupons were applied, I spent around $40.00.

Shane cut down a piece of plywood, 3/4" thick for extra durability, to the exact measurement I needed to fit on top of the table.  The plywood ran for around $18.00 for a 4x8' piece.

I didn't document the process on how to put the foam, batting, and staple the fabric on to the plywood, because I think it is pretty self-explanatory, but here is the final product after adding some Anthropologie handles I had laying around the house.  I think it gives it the extra punch I was looking for.

So, in a roundabout way, I actually owe Gretzky a thank you for destroying my table.  I am also really happy that the black Lappljung rug wasn't available, because if it was, I would have easily overlooked this option.  Now, the spiders in the basement will have to find another "home" to attach themselves to.  Oh yeah.

What about you?  Any projects looming in your junk room that you just haven't gotten around to yet?

xoxo