Salvaged wood coffee table

When we moved to our new house a couple years ago we decided to just buy two Lack side tables to use as coffee tables. They're cheap (~$8), easy and look okay.

Well we've decided it was time to upgrade to a real coffee table. I saw this Ikea hack on Apartment Therapy a few months ago and we bought the Ikea Vittsjo set. The Vittsjo is a pair of tables that nest and have a glass top to them. That's fine but perhaps too delicate for a family with a 16 month baby. 

Then they sat in the box for months. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/233342824415299915/

Over the long weekend, I found some wood next to a dumpster behind an old hardware store. I put as much as would fit in the car. I got some plywood, 2x4s and six pieces of old pine 1x12s that look like they were used for shelving for the past forty years. 

I thought the shelving wood would look great on our coffee table project.  A couple hours later and we had this. 

I just used some bees wax based wood restorer/cleaner to protect the wood and restore some moisture back into it. As well as some mineral oil --- the same stuff to treat cutting boards. 

The wood has a really nice aged look to it with stains and scratches. On one edge it still says "rain gages" in felt tip pin. A lot of tutorials tell you to make new wood look old by hitting it with a chain, hammer or other tool. No need here. This wood actually has been used for the last few decades. 

We'll get some more small baskets to put on that bottom shelf for Adeline's toys. Now to get to work on the smaller side table...

Our new TV console!

So as mentioned we got this office credenza from the Salvation Army for $25 (it was priced $50 but Saturdays are 50% off days). We went there looking for a TV console, didn't really see anything we loved, but we stayed there and got a little more creative before finally realizing we could make this thing into something fairly awesome. The color of the wood is kind of hard to see past.

I used a circular saw to cut off what acted as the legs, then I added the trim pieces to the front doors. Some new decorative feet and silvery knobs and of course the greyish paint ----- we're beginning to only use Martha Stewart colors from Home Depot ---- you get fewer choices but that's kind of a good thing. In the photo below the piece is on furniture dolly so that I could roll it in and out of the garage. If you look closer, you can also see the unpainted turned feet.

All totalled we spent:
$25 for the credenza
And about $60 for the supplies (paint, wooden feet, knobs)

We bought this last Saturday, so in less than a week, we got a new piece of furniture and we couldn't be happier at how it turned out.

Transformation in progress

We picked this up at the Salvation Army on Saturday for $25 ----- its transformation into our new TV cabinet/media center is in progress...

We also got a large wooden mirror for $15 that'll go in the front room. Bonus is that it all fit in the wagon along with Rachel and Adeline and Adeline's stroller!

Mantel Decor

The living room is painted!

My parents came over and helped us paint the living room this weekend. Actually, it only took Saturday from about 10am to 3pm primarily because it only needed one coat of paint to cover the old rusty/rustic paint. The transformation was pretty dramatic (the photos don't do it justice).

Before (on first walkthrough almost a year ago!):

After:

 

edit: the color we ended up going with was Behr "Cornerstone":