Doing, undoing, redoing .... somebody stop me!

When we last saw my little cubby ...

it was drab green.

And it held up a clock along with The Other Green Box which I never got around to finishing. Yep. I've ignored that weird monster-hand shape for years. (It's getting repainted soon, too.)

I have some Beckley Coal from Ce Ce Caldwell that I've been wanting to use and I found myself looking at the little green cubby, thinking "Hmmmm." It needed changing and I could test the paint on something small. Besides, I've been doing small projects lately. I think my body wants to slow down for a little while.

Hel-lo white cubby.

After painting the Coal I rubbed willy-nilly with my favorite little tool, the Wax Puck. Seriously, it works better than a candle. Then Behr (oh, HUSH) Swiss Coffee went over the black and now it's distressed and ready to sell.

Small thing that needed changing #2. 

The table that became my life's work.

It's a nice little table that had something very unfortunate happen to it.

Run away screaming.

Which is worse: Martha Stewart pink or a glued-on peacock feather? Oh, and if you thought I would improve it on the next go-round, you are sadly wrong. No, I decided to paint it a Martha Stewart dusty teal color that looked baaaaad. I tried a couple colors and glazes to hide that but nothing worked. So I gave up and stuffed the table into my storage room. Bye table.

Then one crazy day I decided to re-attack with renewed vigor. I started stripping that latex paint.

I live for moments like this. 

Imagine the entire table covered with layers of goo. Back into storage it went.

Months later I was In my storage room looking at it and I just couldn't help myself. I brought it back to the house and started sanding off the rubbery paint.

What I found under the mess was really pretty.

It took weeks of now-and-then sanding to get the latex removed.

The result was a pretty little aged table with about 300 man-hours of work into it and how do I expect to make a profit on that?

Huh? Exactly how? sheesh

What I learned from this (and a few other recent veneer labor intensive projects.)

My name is Daena and I don't have woodworking skills nor the tools that go with those skills. 

I had to make a simple rule for myself.

Don't buy it if it needs hours of work. 

If it jiggles and is peeling, just walk away. If chunks are missing, walk away. Even if it's free, walk away. If the seller grabs it and chases you to your car, just run faster. Or whack at him with your cane.

I'm proud to say I walked away from a cute little table with severe issues. Poor thing. But it wasn't up to me to save it.

Linking to:
miss mustard seed
funky junk interiors
nifty thrifty things
shabby nest