Entryway Table

The last few months have been a bit rough.... a department wide pay cut for Jon's job....... a co-worker of his (same age) suddenly having a heart attack and passing away...... wind damage to our roof...... a seemingly never ending Winter..... and other random disappointments. Here we are - middle age, in the thick of it, raising kids, working our butts off. It was time for a "date day". Since we don't have any family around us, and we only have a few sitters right now, quite often we will take a day off of work to spend time together while the boys are at school. It's like a grown up version of playing hooky and it feels so exciting!

On this particular Friday a few weeks ago, we decided to make a table for our front foyer. When we first moved in, I thought we would have a table in this area (although the one I had in mind was round and would tuck into the corner). We went a different direction though, and in this post you can see we had my Grandpa's baby buggy and a bench that Jon's Grandparents made. Now, over two years later, I was itching to make a change. I had a very specific look in mind - long and narrow, fairly tall, with space underneath for more display options. We set out to The Antique Mercantile to get some inspiration.

We found a hunk of decorative metal ceiling tile that looked to be the right size, and Jon suggested we use it as the table top. I thought he would just use some pallet wood we already had, but we also found an old door which was bead board and painted white (and perfectly chippy). He said we could cut it up for what we needed.

So we basically made the table top so the tin piece would have a few inches border all the way around. We laid out the front and sides so the "seams" of the bead board made a nice lip all the way around. Not to mention, perfect placement of the hinges we took off. We decided to make the legs out of pipes, so we made a list of the pieces we would need before heading off to Menards. 

I have to admit, as we were building it I started to have second thoughts about putting the tin piece on. I loved the chippy white paint so much and knew I wanted what I put on the table to "pop". I worried the tin would make it too "busy". But, after we brought it in the house and I started experimenting with the decor, I did in fact like the tin. It was easy to nail down at the last minute.

It took another day of on and off fussing with different arrangements. I knew I wanted to incorporate a mirror, some greenery, and some type of word (in this case, Welcome). This was all stuff I had around the house already - either being used somewhere else or stored in the basement. Having so much on hand is both a good and bad thing. It's great because you can always "shop" your own stash for what you need and it usually always works out. It's bad though because I start to doubt myself. Sometimes I feel like I have too many collections. For instance, I collect globes, bird cages, wheeled animals (seen here and here), suitcases, etc.... I like to find a way to display collections together in groupings. But sometimes, it doesn't work out and you have to split things up or it looks like you are trying too hard. I can get overwhelmed and wonder why I have all this "stuff".

So, left to right, here goes: old medicine cabinet door I got for $5 at an estate sale, birdcage filled with books perched upon a wood slab and grapevine, mossy bird, decorative metal corvel, lock off of the door we cut up, metal welcome sign, tattered book with a bread pan on top of it filled with a plant / bottle / jar, metal dispenser my Dad picked up off the side of the road.

Love these details and patina!

We created a junction to better support my peacock crate (also from The Antique Mercantile) that you can see in the pictures above. The crate houses some burlap and a peacock statue. I kind of wanted it to hold pillows, but Jon thinks he has a say in things I guess. We so enjoyed our day together and working together on this project. I've said it before and I'll say it again - it is so, so important to take time to "recharge" yourself. Not only on your own, but with your significant other and family.