Re-Purposing an End Table

Posted by: Paulette
I think I've said before that I hate to throwout  anything that can be used. This doesn't make me a pack rat. I have plenty of stuff that I give away to Goodwill, but, it does mean that every time the kids break something, I have a plethora of new projects to do.
The kids broke one of my end tables. I can't say that I was very heart broken. I had a good place to put it's twin, but this one was constantly being moved around. I guess the kids used it for a stage and it collapsed beneath their weight. Here's what it looked like before they broke it.

And here is what it looked like sitting in a pitiful pile.

It's got possibilities. Don't you think?
First came the demolition. This was done with my jig saw and a hammer and screwdriver. Once all of the pieces were free, I was able to envision what to do with all the parts.

First up was the top of the table. Using the leftover paint from my kitchen cabinets and some sidewalk chalk that I pulverized with my morter and pestle, I made a kind of chalk board paint. It's a horrible paint. It dries with all kinds of little crumbles in it, but, I wasn't about to re-do it. My advise. Use the unsanded grout recipe. I'm sure it turns out a lot better than this one.
It's hung by some of the leftover wrought iron chain and hook from the lamp that I created from the hanging baskets. It's hung from a gate latch that came off our back gate. The gate has 2, so I don't think we'll be missing it. It has the added bonus of having a place to store one piece of chalk. I am using it to write messages to my kids. Sometimes it says, "I love you bunches" and sometimes it has a chore list on it.

Next is a couple of signs that were made from two of the sides of the table. They were painted with one layer of paint, and then a second layer of a different color, sanded and then hand lettered and sanded again. 1998 is the year that Dave and I were married. I've hung these in the kitchen.

French for the kitchen, I think...

This shelf was made using one of the sides, and some brackets I found at Goodwill. I stripped off the trim from around the table and cut some of it on my miter box to fit the side and then glued and nailed it on. Then the brackets were screwed onto the shelf, filled all of the cracks with wood filler, sanded and painted.

Three candlesticks were made in differing heights from the legs. I used squares of wood cut from a pine plank, and some $.50 cents each circular plaques that I got at Hobby Lobby to transform them. I was going to paint them, but decided that I likes the mismatched wood. I may change my mind.
Here's the other one.

The drawer is being used for video storage. nothing fancy.
If you're wondering what happened to the fourth leg, Katie has taken it and calls it her "hammer."