From Trash to Treasure -- The Octagon Table

A few months ago I landed on the best curb alert of my life! I got TONS of great free stuff in one fell swoop. And since our move had us going from 700 sq ft to 2700 sq ft (I still think I’m dreaming most days) our new house was essentially empty. So…the more free stuff the better!

So I brought this funny little guy home that day not having any real set plan for him. Just knowing I had lots of room for him to “roam."

He was pretty gross, and then he sat in our garage getting saw dust all over him for months. 

I had to give him a major scrub down. And I even had to run a butter knife in those grooves on top to clear them out.

But since he was literally trash, and smelled like he used to live in a musty smokey basement…and I have girls with allergies. I needed to needed give this guy the full overhaul.

What’s my secret weapon?

Shellac.

Zinnser B-I-N Shellac Primer.

This stuff is amazing!
I’ve used it to seal our old musty, pet-stinky subfloors and rid the house of smell.
I’ve used it to seal away smoke stains in our bedroom ceiling.
I’ve used it to seal away cat urine smell in a bedroom closet.
And I’ve used it to seal sap from leaking out of wood.

Why is it so awesome?
Well it essentially (this is my very non-techincal description) turns into rock hard plastic once it’s dried. It soaks in and seal away anything thing.
It also adheres extremely well to any type of surface. (Be careful when you are painting, you can’t just scrap it off hardwood floors like latex paint, once it’s dry it’s dried on.)

So I felt very comfortable and safe with the idea of this gross old table going in my girls’ room because I knew anything nasty would be sealed away -- smells included -- once I primed it.

The primer is fumey. I don’t use it around the kids. Don’t think I’d mess with it if I was pregnant.
But I don’t find it as overwhelming as oil based paint.
But this is a paint that won’t clean up with water (like oil based paint) so I use throw away brushes and rollers when I use it.

It looked pretty great white. But I wanted this piece to be spunky for a kid’s space. 

So I reached for the left over paint from our reading room. It’s gonna go great with the color scheme we will have going on in the girl’s room. But it was also nice to not have to buy yet another paint. (We are re-doing our house so I have what feels like 50 gallons or something in our closet right now.)

I LOVE this green (Pantone Pool Green) on this table. It makes it’s Moroccan style sing. Or gives it a chance to be Latin-y or Island-y.

Truth be told, Jasmine and I had an oddly emotional chat about the color of this table. If you now me, you know I love design…. and I like to worry. So I worry I’ll be an over-design-hoggin-momma and won’t let my girls have what they like. (I think this is mostly mom-paranoia since I’ve given them lots of lead on what they like in there.) But I told her my plan for this table and she and I had to have a deep heart to heart about it. We both have a strong sense of aesthetics and she wasn’t fully on board with my idea. She thought blue was where it was at. Somehow we both almost cried twice during our talk. It was strangely deep. And we looked up paint colors online and her blue was like 3 shades off from my green. And honestly I totally get that 3 shades off can make or break a vision so I wasn’t discounting her. But I really did just want to use this extra paint. So I asked her if I could just paint the doors and see what she thought. She agreed. And once she saw it she loved it. So we were all good again.

I liked how clean it felt with the white inside, so I gave it a coat of semigloss white paint to look polished.

This morning we bought it up to the girls’ room and admired it.

I know this table is gonna be home to lots of fun stuff. That’s why I knew it would be perfect in their room -- the perfect treasure chest for their babies and goodies. :)

Look at those Barbie-Ballerina toes! SKILLS.

This cracks me up! (She’s waving her magic wand and giving the crazy eyes)

And here’s a few of just the table. Which may be less adorable without Jasmine Price-Is-Right-ing them.

I spray painted the handles a grey tone because I had some laying around and I thought it worked. It’d have been fun with a bright color…but I didn’t feel like spending money for a 3 second spray of paint.

And here’s a sneak peak at what’s to come in the girl’s room!

They’ve been on toddler sized beds and we got them some awesome, twin, matching, antique beds I’ll be paint “Cosmic Pink” (Color of their choice --- see I share!)

Can’t wait to see it all together soon!
(I’m so pumped to be decorating rooms, not just painting walls! It’s amazing!!)