apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Cute!

Great use of a discarded item!

Completely adorable! Re-sizing the table was a stroke of genius.

I have to admit, I love the rustic look it had before! Had I been lucky enough to find this on a curb by my house, would keep the legs as-is and top it with a black marble countertop remnant. *sigh* Someday, maybe.

*casters*
castor is the oil.

shockthebourgeois - I liked the rustic look too, but I know by now that whenever I see rustic on AT, glossy paint can't be far behind.

And the finished product DOES look good.

A third vote for the rustic look...

...it's, umm, actually just like our dining table (which my husband rescued from someone's garage)

The finished product does look good, and it's a great project, but it could have come from any chain store. I would have loved to see the base cleaned up and then color come in from the new top. Even if we are talking a curb find and not a fine antique, the patina gave the piece character.

Still, a nice finished project.

I couldn't open the link, so I went to the blog and found the post about the table: http://aestheticoutburst.blogspot.com/2008/05/before-and-after-sort-of.html

aums - thank you.

I repeat my tiresome "cheer:"

Edit, edit, edit!

I'm really not aiming to be an ass, but you guys are way too established to have as many spelling and grammatical errors as you do. It's ridiculous.

i want to go to there.

"...whenever I see rustic on AT, glossy paint can't be far behind"

So sadly true. Yes, the finished product looks great, but as someone else mentioned, it could be from any big box store. It lost its years of earned character to a high-gloss "pops of color!" fad.

Would have been beautiful with a white marble top.

PS - the casters are great.

I don't know, not all wear and tear is appealing. This one didn't have much character pre-paint, in my opinion. It was just kind of gross. Now it's cute and useful.

I much preferred the base pre-makeover. Paired with a white marble top, it would be "perfect" to me.

The casters are a great addition, and the final product is really cute; but as others have said, it now looks much more generic. I think the before base had much more character.

Why is it that I usually like the "before" pictures better?
Real antiques (not 60s veneer junk) usually look remarkable with just a bit of cleanup and varnish that allows the beauty of the wood to blossom.

While I agree it could have been great left natural with a marble top, I think if they wanted a wood top this was probably the right choice. I wouldn't have gone so glossy but I think it looks good.

Wait ten years and when the red paint is chipping and has a patina people would cry foul if you then stripped it back to the natural wood. The issue seems to be people's aversion to things that look new. I will admit that painting in general has gone a little overboard and a red stain could have also looked nice and retained more grain and variation from the wood.

i love it...

simple, functional, and shiny. brava!

Nice makeover.

Retaining old finishes doesn't work for everybody.

I really like this. Just from the shots, it looks like she might have a bit of old wood and rustic in her kitchen already. So mixing it up with a bit of bright red introduces a bit of elegance. The legs are really cool, they look like they're ready for a night out on the town!

LilyC, you nailed it. While I like my milk homogenized, I don't care for it applied to a piece as jazzy as this one.

"...whenever I see rustic on AT, glossy paint can't be far behind"
You know it's true. Call me a snob but I feel sad seeing those 1890's lines in a 1960's color. Plus I hate the castors, they bring a 1910 feeling that I'm not into.
Yeah, white marble and tung oil FTW.

KYLE: link does not work to Abbey's blog!!
Please amend... thanx!

TheGoodBiGirl,
i personally understand your irritation with miss-spellings and poor grammar. if i find something like that in a book or magazine it drives me freakin bananas and makes it hard for me to move on!! seriously! it's bad:)
but, this is a blog. it's not edited to be perfect nor did you pay for it. and i think it's kinda rude for you to criticize anyone. especially if you know what they are talking about.

nice job on the table. but like most of the others i liked the old look too... but i still love the glossy red too, i can't decide!!