Tuesday's Table Treasure

End table dilemma number 168. It's not that I can't ever find furniture pieces in stores; in fact, I discover wonderful pieces all the time. There are beautiful pieces but their price tags are just short of the balance in my checking account. In fact, they're so far down the road from my budget, that I can't even see them in my rearview mirror. You know the places I mean? The shops I like to call the Fantastic Four: Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Pier 1 Imports and Crate & Barrel. I spend some time walking through their physical stores or hitting up the online catalogs for inspiration because inspiration is about all I want to pay for. It's kind of a love-hate-love thing. For instance, here's a set I was ogling at Pier 1:

Now, I don't need three of them and I knew I would want to put some color on them or maybe a little distressing so the $300-ish price tag seemed a little silly for something I was going to put my stamp on anyway. So there they sat, way back in my rearview mirror. Then, the last time I was dropping off some clothing at my local Goodwill store I drove around and went in (as is typical) just in case - you know because there just might be something. It's hit and miss but I've found some really good-bone furniture that has been discarded because of rips, tears, gouges, stains etc... all the kinds of damage that I can work with. On that particular day, I found these rather plain and kind of orangey nesting tables.

As you can see from the photo I bought them. They're pictured here on my kitchen table. But I paid a lot much less than $300: $10 for the pair! Seriously, I totally scored big on these. The funny thing is they look very similar to the Pier1 set (except there are 2 instead of 3).  I did the happy dance when I saw that price tag, paid the lady and took them home.

I knew I needed just a little color but wanted to finish them quickly so I found some Annie Sloan Chateau Grey chalk paint on my garage shelf and just slapped on two coats - sanding lightly between. Using a medium grit sandpaper, I distressed the edges and a few spots on the top to add interest. I rubbed the whole thing with clear wax and then applied dark wax near all of the places I had distressed as well as random places on the table tops, just to give it a more vintage-worn look.

They came out pretty great I think. And I love the spot of color it provides in my living room which, admittedly, might be a little over-beige.

Here's a closer look at the distressing.

What do you think?

Oh, and P.S.  I'm still pondering over the coffee table dilemma. Keep those ideas coming!