Coffee Table Redux

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting our coffee table, allow me to introduce you:

Everyone, this is Bulky. Bulky, this is everyone. Say hello! 

We got Bulky for free from Mike's aunt and uncle shortly after we were married. It's great having a coffee table--and for right now it's our only table since we had to sell our kitchen table and chairs to help fund our move to California--but Bulky has a couple of major flaws. First of all, as his name implies, he's kind of bulky for his size. It's not a huge coffee table, and yet it was a nuisance to move around. I was always moving it out of the way. Which brings us to the weight issue. You see that giant block of wood on top there? Well that's where Bulky gains weight. Last, and probably least, it just really wasn't our style. It had a funky '70s four-square pattern on the top and the sides were chipping (probably mostly due to being moved from wherever it was bought, to a house in Utah, to an apartment in Idaho, to an apartment in Utah, to an apartment in California). 

So we decided to upcycle it. (And yes, I just used a trendy DIY word. I'll get over it though, I'm sure.) We started out by sanding but then we realized the top wasn't real wood, and we would like a little more surface space anyway, so Mike just unscrewed the top and hammered it off. We finished sanding the sides and base, and headed to Home Depot for the rest of the supplies: a piece of wood, a little bit of molding, paint, and the SAWS! Mike and an employee sawed the wood and molding into the right sizes while Madie and I browsed paint options. We settled on "wheat" and "Barbaden blue" (I love paint names, don't you?) 

And VIOLA! Our new coffee table! It weighs probably three pounds less and we get quite a bit more surface space. Now all I need to do is cover those horrifying coasters I got for .99 and we've got it made!