The Tabby Table

This is Tabby.  She's a very special table to us for many reasons. 

1.  She was given to us by a very dear friend of ours, Tabetha.  Well, it had been sitting in her backyard and I needed it for a party.  She graciously let me borrow it until after the party when she said, "It's your problem now!"  I was thrilled!!  I had no idea what I wanted to do with it, but I knew it would be awesome.  

2.  We built it as a family.  Every person (even our neighbor boys!) took part in this table in one way or another.  

3.  We love it.  The decor around the table could use some work, but hey, one thing at a time right?  It's exactly what we wanted. 

4.  Now we can have some of our garage back and quit moving this table from one house to another!  I was running out of excuses as to why I needed to keep it.  

I'm not going to go into major detail about how we did it.  If you want that, just ask.  But here's the nutshell version:

Step 1:  Find some super crappy chairs at a salvage store.

Step 2:  Fill all the gouges from the crazies that had them before you.

Step 3:  Strip the varnish.  I just used liquid sandpaper and called it a day.  (Worked great!)

Step 4:  Paint whatever color makes you happy!  For me that was bright red.  Why?  Because I can decorate them for about 90% of the holidays in the year!  I'm super stoked about Valentines day.  :)  I'm going to put cute little envelopes on the back of them for love notes.  But, I digress.....

Step 5:  Cut the rounded edges off the old table and sand sand sand!  We totally cheated.  We were going to completely remove the table top originally but we liked the idea of having it a bit larger.  And I liked the cascade effect that the different levels make.  :)

Step 6:  Prepare the 2x6's for the top.  Sand, sand, sand, sand, epoxy, sand, sand, stain, wipe, dry, sand, polyurethane, sand, polyurethane, dry.

Step 7:  Arrange boards how you like them, and affix the now painted (yeah, didn't mention that step, did I?) table to the top!

Step 8:  Flip the beasty thing over.  It is HEAVY.
Step 9:  Try to break a few toes getting it inside without dragging it across the concrete. : /
Step 10:  Find the super awesome 150 year old pot your husband got you and put it on top.

Step 11:  Step back and vow never to do it again.  Just kidding.  We love it and I'd do it a million times over.  It would be easier now that we've figured out all the mistakes you can make.  : )

Thank you Tabetha!!