Another Project

We have spoken a little about my Craigslist/thrift store addiction. I am on Craigslist at least once a day trying to find the perfect piece to satisfy my mid century modern obsession. To make the hunt more challenging, it has to be a huge bargain as well.

My very best find was this credenza. Incidentally, credenza is a word I do not believe I ever used before my MCM obsession started. Now I am all  'Oh, the martini glasses are in the credenza, Darling' this, and 'Isn't the credenza a fabulous place to display our mid-oughts flat screen?' that. I am very fancy like that. Anyway, back to the credenza. I spotted this about eleven minutes after it was posted on Craigslist for $90! So I jumped on it - not literally because 'one does not jump on a credenza.'  The woman selling it was the niece of the original owner. It was in near perfect condition. It just need a buff and shine and was ready to hold electronic equipment not even dreamed of when it was manufactured sixty years ago.

The only bad part of the credenza deal was that I was a little spoiled. I quickly found that pieces in ready to use condition at that price are few and far between, so I should not have been surprised at the poor condition of this $45 coffee table -

But the seller was so sweet, I couldn't not buy it. A lesson to all Craigslist sellers - get some very sweet old man to handle the deal. Buyers will be putty in his hands.  So that is how I ended up with a scruffy coffee table or in other words another project. Sigh.

Issue number one of this table was the overwhelming musty smell. I searched the interwebs for something that might get the smell out. I bought this mainly because it was dry since liquid and wood do not go together- and sprinkled it over the underside of the table and in the drawer then left it in the sun for the afternoon. I had to sprinkle, sun and repeat for three days, because it took a little while to get the stored-for-twenty-or-thirty-years-in-a-basement smell out, but it did eventually work.

Sprinkle, Sun, Repeat

        

When I first looked at the piece, I thought it had a Formica top, but upon further investigation was happy to see it was just a heavily lacquered veneer., so there was some sanding, then some more sanding.  Because it was veneer and even the thick veneer of fifties can only be sanded so much, I could not get the circle completely off the center of the table, but luckily my mom gave me this very cool pickle dish that smashingly covers the remnants of said circle.

This treasure was a wedding present of my mom and dad.

Voila!

A better look at the nice inlay on top

I like to paint the inside of drawers. It just makes me happy to see a splash of color when I open them.

So this project is done. Now for that $45 dollar Lane parson's table that I suspect was used as a craft work table. Ugh. Just the removal of the yellowed cellophane tape stuck all over it is a daunting task.