Hits, and misses

This chair, which I neglected to get a before picture of, was purchased the same day as the HP desk, albeit from a different yard sale. I went back to this sale after getting the HP desk home, and paid $20 for this chair - but it was hideous. It had a yellow paint job that had been grossly antiqued with a brown layer over it, underneath a few years' worth of dust and dirt. The seat was covered with a very dated gold fabric adorned with eagles - the type you see on 70's patriotic materials. At the time it was done, it might have been in style. Someone else's style - not mine. 

I wanted white, and something to go with the teal-ish wash on my HP desk legs. I love the way the chair came out.

The problem with the chair is that it is just a smidge too tall. I am not short, at nearly 5' 7", but this chair is too tall for me. When I took the hideous gold eagle fabric off, the original leather seat was still on the frame. I didn't want to destroy that, so I simply added a layer of batting to make more of a cushion and covered it with my lovely fabric. I don't think the layer of batting makes that much difference, but perhaps it does. What I do know is that my feet do touch the floor while I am sitting in the chair, but my knees are not really at a 90 degree bend, which would be optimal. Also, the arm rests are a good two inches below my elbows. In order to rest my arms, I find myself slouching to one side - also not optimal. When I combine this chair with my HP desk, I usually end up putting my feet up on the support of the desk instead of on the floor, and then slouching in the chair. So while I love the look of this chair, I am going to continue to search for the perfect HP desk companion seat.

HP desk

My obsession

I've been drooling over pictures of fantastically renovated furniture on Pinterest and Hometalk for months and months, dreaming about the time when I would get some time/money/ambition/free furniture to try my hand at some upcycling. I'm posting this after the fact just to bring everyone (ha! my mom, most likely, and she's already seen my projects,) up to speed. 

So I found this table at a yard sale last summer and fell in love with the legs on it. I cruised the rest of the junk for sale trying to work up the nerve to ask how much - I hate yard sales where they don't price things. I want to look and leave without haggling, not have to ask a price for every thing I might want. This table was worth asking. When they told me it was $5, I tried hard not to jump over the piles of stuffed animals to give my money. What a deal! Then it wouldn't fit in my car - and they drove it to my house! Awesomeness in spades! 

The table with its awful laminate counter top.

gorgeous detailing on the legs - I couldn't pass this up!

So I brought the table to my basement, squished between the totes of clothes and household items that would be accompanying my daughter to her new house and the stacks of air conditioners and piles of fabric and yarn that make up the detritus of any normal basement in a house of crafters with ADHD.

You can see on this photo of the table upside down that the wood on the top was all splintered and peeling away from the edge. I ended up wrapping the pages around the edge of the table top to give it more stability.

Sorry it's upside down, but this was on the bottom side of the table top. The Paine Furniture Co. was a famous furniture company started in the mid 1800's. http://www.painespatio.com/index.php?id=2 

I decided to paint the table white, but first I had to take care of that awful covering - which took some of the top layer of wood from the table when I pulled it off. The bad news was I needed to do a lot more work. The good news was that I had a gift card to Home Depot, and came home with a hand sander. I loooove power tools!

After sanding the top down, I painted the legs and top with a primer coat - Zinsser cover stain, which will bond to any surface and allows you to paint latex paint over stained furniture without stripping. I then started on my magical top - I took apart an extra copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and laid the pages out so that some of my favorite parts of the story would be showing. I used Mod Podge to adhere them to the desk top, then sanded them a bit and covered the top with a polycrylic sealant. 

deciding which pages would go where, and which bits of the story were really important to be able to read

I also glazed the legs with a very light teal color, which is hard to see in these pictures, but adds just a little bit of extra special-ness for me to love. <3 <3 <3

I added the little footprints in keeping with this book, which is where the Marauder's Map is first introduced. <3