Duncan Phyfe Dump Pile Dive

 It's been a while...are any of you still checking in with me? I hope so, I've had a lot going on in the past couple months so there are lots of projects to post. Starting with this drop leaf dining table that was headed for the trash...it pays to know people with furniture hook ups, for me at least.

This table came to me from the "Dump Pile" at a local thrift store. Apparently when they need to move their inventory, they just put it behind the store in the "Dump Pile" until they have enough things to haul off. You would think that marking it down would be a better option but none the less, I pulled this baby to safety (the bed of my truck) & brought it home.

 The legs were a little wobbly but luckily for me, my boyfriend is used to coming up with ways to "Mc Guyver" all the castoffs I bring home (I'm kinda like the crazy cat lady but with furniture - I want to find homes for all of them). A couple of wood screws & discreetly placed metal straps later, it was good to go.

After a good sanding, several coats of black satin paint, & a solid coat of polyurethane it looked lke this. I wanted to give it an updated finish but keep with the "classic" style of the piece.

You'll have to excuse my photography but 1. I'm a total amateur using a borrowed camera and 2. I have to shoot all my "after" shots in my front yard because of the mini-remodel we're doing in our kitchen/living room. If you look past the glare, you can see come of the contrasting distressed detail on the edges.

This close up shows more detail of the grooves & some of the raised areas where I sanded off the black paint then highlighted it with a brown glaze. One of the things I LOVE about this table are the original embossed metal clawfeet. You just don't see details like that very often on new furniture.

And here it is semi-staged (I was in a huge hurry to get this one down to the store). The rich colors in the fabric panel I used looked awesome against the dark finish on the table. I'm really happy with the way this one came out. I think the neutral finish & classic lines would fit in well with a variety of different design styles. I can't believe that this was headed for the landfill! Which brings up a good point, don't most people donate to second hand stores to avoid having something end up in a landfill?....Just a thought.



A co-worker of my mom's gave us these organic pears that she grew, they were the perfect thing to add to  my little photo shoot.

On a side note, I'm still having some computer issues & am using it as an excuse to hang out at my best friend's house so I can use her's. Her husband loves us! But I think I'll at least be able to do this at least once a week so stay posted.

If you like this, check out some other great projects on these blogs, I'm linking this up to the following
blog parties;