Table de la Lion

I love to see things transformed.

Whether it is a work of art, a home, a team, or even a person.  There is something very inspiring and beautiful about seeing something go from utterly broken to fully transformed.  While what I'm going to write about is just a story about a piece of furniture, there is another story, a more spiritual one about how my life has been transformed.  I'll save that for another day though.

Something else I love - GOOD DEALS :) Which is why you might often find me in a thrift store, flea market or garage sale.  Last Wednesday I was at a thrift store with my buddy Chris; we weren't looking for anything specific but just went because some things were half off. 

By the way, as you may have inferred from my use of "buddy" this isn't Sam, its her husband Brian and I'm giving my first post a shot. 

As Sam alluded to in her last post I found a pretty cool little claw foot table with a lion head drawer, which i think make it look pretty tough.  Only it had a few problems: a really good lean, the paint was yellowing and chipping off and it had only three of the four claw feet remaining; this is most likely why most people walked right on by.  You can't quite grasp it in the picture below because I think I was trying to hide the lean (this was my text to Sam, trying to convince her we needed it).

For $40 I took a chance on it assuming I would somehow figure out how to jimmy-rig it, as I've become accustomed to in some of our recent projects.  Once I got it home I removed the legs and put the table on its top.  I made sure that the legs would now be level when I Gorilla-glued them back together. (see below)

Once I put it back on its legs it was (basically) level, so I took off the hardwear.  Next I gave it a quick sand, and then Sam and I were ready to paint.  I forget the color name, maybe she can comment below with it, I know its from Martha Stewart. I then returned the hardware, but only the front two claw feet since it made it a bit more symmetrical.  All in all, a very quick and easy transformation; here is the final product:

Hope you like it!

[Sam here: I'm giddy with excitement that Brian decided to post on my blog. I think he did a great job :-) . Now for a few comments for those that may be interested: The paint is Flagstone by Martha Stewart in the high gloss.  We were going to put a lacquer over it, but the man at Home Depot convinced us that we wouldn't need it.  I agree with him as it came out very glossy/shiny without it.  He also said the lacquer might yellow (heck to the no on yellowing paint).  Also - "tough", Brian?  hahaha, awesome.  A few more things - remember when I blogged about hats?  I'm now realizing how helpful it is to blog about something I want, because Brian came home with a hat for me from his deal hunting (I cleaned it, a lot, don't worry). We also found the marble horse head bookends at a flea market this weekend for $15. yay! Happy Easter all]