Antique Pedestal Table in Linen

This table was another piece destined for the dump,  It had been sitting in a storage unit for a while and it was pretty rough.  It's quarter sawn oak and was really dry, so the grain was really open.  I don't like oak to begin with and when it's dry it's even worse!  The drawer was stuck tight and took some major muscles (not mine!) to open it.  Once open I had to sand down the top edges and sides so it would slide freely again.

I had a vision for this piece and when I was part way through was not liking it at all.  I finished it, stared at it, hemmed and hawed about it, fretted about it,  and then decided to undo what I had done.  I was so much happier when I did and new inspiration struck.  Love when that happens.  

I haven't distressed anything too heavily in a while and got a little carried away on this one and had to go back and repaint parts of it. Lol.  It's still more distressed than I normally do, but I like it that way. Especially with all that dark wood showing underneath the light paint.  Still makes my heart go pitter patter. 

I love how it is soft, but still has presence.  I'm loving the pedestals and chunky feet.  But, my favorite part is THE KNOB!  It's amazing!  It was the only one.  If any of you shop at Hobby Lobby you know they have their knobs in bins and on the front of the bin there is a little hole drilled with the knob (that's in the bin) attached to the front of it so you know what's in the bin (did any of that make sense?).  Well, there were no knobs in the bin, but I just could not walk out of there without that knob, so I unscrewed the one from the front of the bin and away I went.  I was looking around like a ninja because I felt guilty.  I don't know why, it was a sale for them that they wouldn't have had otherwise! :)

BEFORE

You can see the damage on the wood of the base (icky spots) and the top looked the same. My sweet hubby started sanding on it with the grinder (I normally do my own sanding but this table happened to be in his shop so maybe he was feeling a little possessive or maybe he just wanted to see what was under that nasty stain or maybe he was just being a super nice guy!) and stopped about 30 seconds in and says, "We didn't get a before pic!"  Awww...love that guy!

 AFTER

I can't believe how good it turned out!

 I had originally painted the drawer front, the feet, and the trim at the bottom of the pedestal a deep greige and heavily distressed them.  It just didn't look right.  The dark drawer messed with the slim profile of the table skirt (visually chopped it in half) and the dark trim at the bottom of the pedestal made the legs look short.  Kinda reminded me of the rules of What Not to Wear. Lol  I decided to use paper on the drawer front instead and found one in my stash that just happened to be the color of the table!  I love how there is a balance of the green and cream so it draws the eye right across the front without making it look like a block in the middle.  Know what I mean?

 The. Knob.

.  It draws the eye down from the dark top to the intricate bronze inlay, and the rustic cream edge allows it to pop against the green paper.  I would sleep with it under my pillow if that didn't make me the biggest weirdo ever!

Chunky feet! 

 Thank you Sausha from Sweet Pickens for making me aware of chunky feet!

One of my most favorite things is light paint over dark wood.  

*sigh*

The top actually wasn't too bad once we sanded the bejeebers out of it.  We started with 80 on the grinder and then I smoothed it out with 150 on the orbital.  I hardly ever use two coats of Java Gel from General Finishes but this puppy needed it.  There were a few dark spots, but now they're hardly notiecable.  It's pretty Tiger Oak and the little hole in the top (see it on the left side?) just adds character. I didn't want to fill it because I wasn't sure how it was going to stain and with all the grain it would have just looked like a dark spot anyway, so I left it. 

 I'm happy. ;)