So after our crazy weekend of bench-haggling and coffee-table searching (see previous posts) we found "the one!" We'd searched all day and found everything BUT the coffee table I was looking for & I was about to give up. For a last-ditch effort, we stopped at the Restoration Hardware outlet. I sat in the car with Justin while Dave ran in & texted me pictures and prices. He found this table:
It was beautiful and had the exact lines I was looking for (of the cursed bench to be exact.) And it was only $188. But I knew the wood (as gorgeous as it was) would sadly be wrong in our living room:
While I often mix woods, this would be way too much mixing. The gorgeous grayed barnwood finish just wouldn't work with my warm green sofa or the other woods in the room and was way too close to my rug. And since Better Homes & Gardens is having me remove my cow hide (they get complaints form readers when they see them in homes) I really needed some white in that area of the room or it would feel too blah. (above) So the options I thought of were: white marble (gorgeous, but kind of a costly & kid-unfriendly fix) and white vinyl. Here it was before (I know it's really beautiful.)
And here it is now:
We went with the faux white leather (vinyl) for $8. (By the way, that candle on the table smells INSANELY WONDERFUL and it's the Elle DEcor 20th Anniversary candle by Votivo. I'm now a bit obsessed am am guessing all of their candles are probably this good... Could be my new additcion.) Anyway, I coudn't bear to cover up that wood (love it!!) so we went to Home Depot and had a piece of plywood cut 1/4" smaller than the barnwood table top so there would be room for the vinyl to fit around the sides ($17). (And now we can use the pretty wood somewhere else.) Here is is layed out ready to be stapled:
Once we wrapped the vinyl around the new piece of wood, Christian "helped" drill the screws in the frame:
I chose the white vinyl because it's cleanable, low-maintenance and super-cheap. (And I love the look... it's hard to tell from the photos but it has a great leather grain. I used to be "meh" about vinyls but they really do have so many gorgeous ones out there.) So one more view, here it is before:
And here it is now:
Much better for our space! Clearly I worked a little harder at the styling, but I took the 'before" early in the morning (lazy) and couldn't have my 'before' looking better than the after now could I? ;) It's really soft and I love having a larger square table because there's more suraface area for displaying our things. I keep dirtying it on purpose & testing the clean-up, and so far so good! (Do you spy lab a lab beaker?? shocker! I found more at that flea market a month or so ago & just tossed in some leaves from my paperwhites that have no bloomed & gone... No sense wasting green these {freezing} days.
Like I said, I love mixing woods & metals. I'm so happy withe the clean modern lines & pure white of the table against the crackled curvier gold antique chair:
So what about my little lucite table?? I don't know!! I love it too. We can't decide, but I'm getting a bit sentimentally attached to this one and am thinking of inviting some friends over to chant around it tonight and get the word out that it's "not for sale." ;)
Also, I do think everything happens for a reason and I have to tell you all that I had such fun this weekend with this whole bench/ table fiasco!! You all made me feel like you were on my team, feeling my frustrations with me. It made it all fun & silly and I really appreciate that. Also, I'm SO over the bench but when I go back (I will go back :) I'll try to snap a pic of the bench on my phone so you can all see it. But this one fits the space so much better and it was such a fun, easy inexpensive project vs. having to pay for reupholstery & tufting.
So anyway, the project this week is to:
Reinvent or freshen up something in your home that isn't quite right. {even if it's already beautiful}
This may involve recovering, painting, staining, rearranging, embellishing or even replacing something in your house that isn't perfect for a space. The coffee table was beautiful before I touched it & I'm sure some people may consider what I did an atrocity, but it wasn't right for the space. Are there objects like this in your home? It's time to get critical. Sometimes we have things in our homes that are beautiful but that just don't do anything for the space. Getting rid of these things or changing them can be hard to do, especially if we've paid a lot of money for something, but it's like admitting a mistake. So now's the time to take a piece and customize it to your space. Make it perfect. And if there's no way to make it work for your space, consider saying goodbye to it and sending it to a home where it'll be loved.
xoxo,
lauren
There were some pretty junk drawers linked up to last week's post and if you missed them you can go back & check them out here. I'd love to see your "reinvented beauties" so link up if you have a reinvented something to show us all! Make sure to link to the address of the exact post, not to your whole blog or we won't be able to find it, and type in your name and the subject/ title of the post. :) (Also, Please don't link up if your post doesn't pertain to the Pure Organization Project- thanks I really appreciate it!)
Also, today's the last day to enter the Inside Avenue Giveaway!!