The Coffee Table That Wasn't

I really like our coffee table. It's big enough to do school at, gather around for dinner and a movie, or lay out large projects. When a friend mentioned recently how much she loved it, I had to smile. The truth is, this well-loved piece was never actually intended to be a coffee table. In fact, when we bought it at an antique/junk shop 8 years ago, it looked like this:

Then, two years ago, it was replaced in the dining room by a table that had belonged to JD's grandparents. Our country set was moved to the kitchen for awhile, but when I needed a child-sized table for our new school room, I decided to “make-do” instead of buying a new one.

Yep. We took our trusty table and cut down the legs. JD refinished the table-top with some leftover stain and varnish we had in the garage, and “voila!” a child-sized school table!

It worked great, but when we no longer had a dedicated school room, I declared that our dining room-turned-kitchen-turned-school-table was being reassigned to living room duty. Although we still do our schoolwork here, the kids are very happy with the table's new home: did you know that coffee tables can transform into bridges, tents and diving boards on a moment's notice?

Someday I'm going to paint the bottom of the table white, but I've been saying that for nearly two years, so who knows when it will actually happen. In the meantime, it's a great place to put up weary feet and enjoy a good movie...or two!