I had received a 50's style kitchen table from my grandparents and hauled it from rental to rental....house to house for years. I don't have a picture of that exact table but it was very similar to this one with blue diamond patterns on the top. Really nice but over the years I got bored of it and never really liked that blue.
I took off the original metal top and replaced with a top from Ikea, painted the base a dark brown and it served as an "art table" in our kitchen for years. But as those tops often do, it showed the wear quickly. I have since decided that I won't ever use a laminate as a top again and will hold out for solid wood.
After I restored that pedestal table (see previous post in March 2012 about that project), I took apart the other table and stored the wood base. The top was in bad shape so I got rid of that....okay to be totally honest it is still in the front our house completing our "trailer park chic" look.
I just couldn't seem to part with the base. Then I had an idea...while on my run as usual....what if I cut down the old base and used some of the wood planks I have in the basement as a new top?
Out came the table saw, the old wood base and, it seemed, every other tool I owned. First I cut down the table base to 18". The wood was approximately 1" thick so it would give me a finished height of about 19" which is great for a coffee table. Then I sorted through my planks to see which ones would fit and work together best for an interesting top.
I cut those down and then, you guessed it, the sanding began. Once again coursest to finest grade and after not too long the 2 pieces were looking nice and smooth. I applied 2 coats of Tung Oil and then fixed them to the base with screws from the underside.
Here is the final result. We love it!
