It Was ONE dollar.

First up, the winners of the giveaway!  If your comment is one of the two below, please email dustin@sandihendersondesign.com to claim your goodies.  There were quite a few people who emailed me to enter this time around and I apologize, but I just didn't have any way of assigning a number to those emails to enter them in the drawing.  If you have difficulties posting in the future, let me know and I can contact typepad about the issue.

What can you get for a dollar these days?  Cheapo plastic toys at the dollar store?  sure.  OR how about a solid wood table?

A week or so ago, the kiddos were spending the night at Grandma's house and so I told Dustin we could do whatever he wanted Saturday morning, as long as it included carting me around to various garage sales.  Like any good husband he said "Of course that's what I want to do!  What else would be on my agenda?"

So off we went and scored this coffee table for ONE dollar.  It is solid wood and someone had mostly stripped it all the way, so all I had to do was clean it up a bit and finish it.

I found a new love in this process of refinishing.  It's oddly meditative, sort of in the same way that I love to fold laundry.  You can think about other things, but you're still being productive.  Dustin enjoyed helping too, and it spawned the great wood refinishing project of 2010.  Nothing has been safe, wait till you see.  Actually, you already saw this.

The After:

It has these fabulous inperfections that I love.  I wanted to go with a rubbed wood look and found that this in combination with this works wonders.  And it smells fabulous too, no need to move the project outside.

This whole project has me so into restoring beautiful wood - do you guys have photos or links to such projects to share?

xo

Sandi

Comments

[Wendy]

A find like that always has me walking on air for a few days. Great project!

[Heidi]

Do you have any tips for stripping/ removing paint? I have a great kids table and chairs and I hate the paint on it. I would love to strip it and repaint it or restore the wood depending on what is underneath.

[Devon]

So it is not so much as a refinishing site, but I love this site that has a million different plans to easily build cute furniture, plus lots of reader submissions of their finished products! It's definately worth checking out. http://www.knock-offwood.com/

[Rebecca]

Umm, you lost me at "I love folding laundry." i don't think there's any household chore worse than that!

[Melanie]

Nice little find! I love garage sales, and annual garbage week... though it may horrify some. I don't care.
I brought back a little 3 legged drop leaf table from arizona a couple years ago. My aunt got it at goodwill or a garage sale cheap.
I've been using it as is, but have been thinking about it lately. Hate to paint it, but some form of oil or poly might be nice, along with some new paint for my bedroom.

[naomig]

Oh, that is SO inspiring! I love it! Finding something like that is so wonderful... even more exciting than finding something wonderful at a full price furniture store... not necessarily because of the cheapness of it, but because you get the chance to take something that someone else considered of little/no value, and make something beautiful.

[Anna]

Love it! I know just what you mean about meditating while doing the inconsequencial. I'm that way hanging the clothes on the line...my friends think I'm crazy but I love it. And what smells better than sunshine? Best buy I ever got was a suitcase that I paid $3 for but found a $5 in the lining!

[Mary on Lake Pulaski]

Great to see my name up above - thank you Sandi. I have refinished a very similar table that was a library table, to no photos of the process. It was a little more than $5; I found it at an estate auction that happened during an all day rain!

[Mindy Gledhill]

Thanks to all who entered the giveaway and congrats to the winners! And I do love that coffee table.

[Laurel]

That table turned out just lovely!

[erin]

WOW! what an amazing find! ...& a husband who will unbegrudgingly go garage saling with you -even more amazing!!

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I am always so impressed with the classic design and details in your cards! I have to laugh when you say they are "simple!" Thanks for your attention to detail and sharing it with us! Happy summer!

[Jessica]

Has this given you a hankering to do the piano?!

[gina f.]

great job, the table looks beautiful! You should check out Donna Downey's blog for a fun apron she made with meadowsweet ii that i think she posted yesterday.

[Elaine]

Sandi, Could you post your recipe for rasberry jam? I have wanted to make some since the day I saw the picture. Also, if you know the individual who mentioned apricot rasberry jam, I would love that recipe too....please.

[mo]

A girl after my own heart. We buy a lot of thrifted furniture and everytime someone new comes to our house I have to tell them how much things cost. "This chair was only FIVE DOLLARS!" It still gets me excited.

[Julie L]

I LOVE this!!! With the passing of my grandparents, great aunts and uncles, our family has been partaking in the great divide. I have so many old, worn, LOVELY pieces of furniture now. I intend to restore them one by one. Some myself, some left to more experienced hands. But I love the idea of letting their pieces continue to live on. And that lets me feel their missed smiles on my cheeks.

[shelley]

Sandi, the photo of you aglow with light is heavenly - rubber gloves and all! Your porcelain skin and beautiful face made me think instantly, "she looks just like an angel." I love that photo of you!

Nice work on the table too - it's making me think of all the refinishing projects that I've neglected all summer because it was too hot to work on them outside. But it's finally cooling off in these parts...yippee skippy! I'm happy for you that you got to have a blissfully selfish day on Saturday - just what every girl needs once in awhile.