Sunday, April 15, 2012

Ikea Hacked Antique Table

Ahhhhhh...A long overdue blog post. It feels sooooooooo good to blog again!

Keeping this part super short...not sure if I've mentioned, but I'm 35 weeks pregnant AND we just moved to the dream home a week and a half ago. Being this pregnant and moving at the same time are not really compatible, but we're making do.

Anyway, when we found our lovely new abode, I had the opportunity to have my very own breakfast nook. So exciting. I've always wanted one of these. We've had the perfect table in storage for years. It's from the early 1900's and was the husbands grandmothers. So it was a family heirloom.  The only problem with this was that it had 5 legs. It's a round table with 5 legs, which I thought was weird. The legs were so short that I couldn't even sit at the table without my legs crossed, so we never used it. It's a shame really, to store such a nice table for 10 years without using it...

I wanted a pedestal table with a white base and woodish top. It annoyed the crap out of me that I had the top, but not a base. It took some persuading, but I finally convinced the hubby to help me. So I went on Ebay, to every antique store that I could find and Craigslist and I couldn't find a pedestal that I liked. Most of them were broken, had mismatched legs or were meant for a small table.  I wanted the table to look like THIS...but didn't exactly want to spend that amount of money while still storing a similar table in my house, because really, that's just dumb and hoarderish.    

My breakfast nook table inspiration.
The super handy husband and I were popping around Ikea one day when I stumbled upon this gem. So perfect in so many ways. May I take this opportunity to introduce you kids to the fantabulous blog IKEA HACKERS? These people are amazing and really, I want to be just like them. I was so inspired to hack when I saw this table so we bought it. 

The table that inspired me to become a hacker.

I neglected to take photos of the actual hack, but there were a few things that took place beforehand...first, I had to find paint that matched the pedestal, so I took a piece of the wood from the table kit to Home Depot, they put it through their little computer thing a voila, I had paint that matched perfectly. Score!  Then the hubby put the table together. It turned out to be a good thing that we bought the entire table instead of just a pedestal. There was a pedestal mount that made it super easy to attach to the top. Once that was done, he painted the first coat on the lip of the table. Now, I know there are going to be some people who are appalled that we painted an antique table and Ikea hacked it. Get over it. It looks great and really, I wasn't ever going to use it in it's original form. At least it's out of the closet (making more room for my shoes).

Once it was put together. Ignore my mess...we're moving.



After 2 coats. It looks superb. It's not a great picture, but it's all I got. Sorry!
I think that our very first Ikea hack turned out pretty well.  The chairs are antiques (that I did NOT hack) from Seattle, they were gifted by my very own beastie Courtney.  Ignore the ugly tile, that will go away eventually, in the mean time, I'm in search of a round rug...