My grandmother recently emailed the fam (yes, my grandmother is super hip and has a Gmail account) and asking if anyone wanted to give this vintage coffee table a new home. It belonged to her parents, my great-grandparents, but she didn't have room for it anymore. With a new house to fill and a soft spot for old family things, I gladly took it off her hands.
How old school is that blue top?!
I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. It's in decent shape. There are some nicks in the wood...
...and the mirrored stuff on the glass top is starting to flake off. Plus, it's very blue.
But I love its curvy lines and diminutive stature. I have no idea what it's made out of, but this puppy is light! I can carry it with the glass top on it without even coming close to breaking a sweat.
I mean, look at that shape!
Don't let that reflection trick you -- the sky was blue but not really that blue. Plus, it was like 38 degrees. Scroll to the top and check out all the snow in the first pic!
I don't think it's an antique, but it did have this marking on the bottom.
My grandmother thinks it's from the 1940s and has only sentimental value. I was thinking I could refinish it, and maybe find a glass cutter who could make a clear top for it. But when I mentioned that to my dad, he seemed not-quite-so-thrilled that I'd mess with his grandparents' table. Hmm. I guess I'll just hang onto it as is for a while.
But I thought it might be cute in our room we're calling the lounge, for lack of a better name. It's the first room you walk into and it's attached to the kitchen. We're not sure what we're going to do with it, but I'm picturing a sitting room with a couple comfy chairs and a coffee table -- maybe this coffee table? -- in between.
What do you think I should do with it? Keep it as is? Refinish it and get rid of the blue top? I'd love to hear your ideas!
In other news, I picked up another gray paint sample for the office, called Silver Sateen. It's a little lighter than Natural Gray, but I think it's too green.
Silver Sateen on the left, Natural Gray on the right
Silver Sateen on the bottom
Gah this terrible light! I swear it's got a greenish hue. Or maybe it just looks green compared to Natural Gray, which is a tad beige.
We've got a dilemma now. The hubs likes Silver Sateen, and I like Natural Gray. Although I'm pretty sure if I just picked a color and painted it, he'd be happy as long as it wasn't pink.
11 comments:
That shape is AMAZING. I love the blue, and I think it would work really well if you brought some other blue elements into the room. Putting a wood tray on top of the table might make it less OMGBLUE, while keeping it fun!
The table - cool, it looked like a swimming pool in the thumbnail!
Grey is a tough colour. Lovely, but tough to get the tone you like! I have heard that when you do paint, one should use a flat paint for grey.
I'm trying to paint grey and white stripes...I like Pratt and Lambert: Quiet time. I also love WOLF by P&L but that is pretty dark. Vintage Grey by Eddie Bauer is a good one too. ~Good luck!
Middle picture - I like the top grey. Natural Grey. Bottom picture - I like the one on the right! I like the beige or purple undertones in Grey.
Taking on furniture that has sentimental value is tough! I usually ask if they care if I paint/refinish something before I take it, just to be safe. I like the idea of antiques or heirloom pieces being updated to suit your current living, but not everyone feels that way!
All that being said, I think that you can make the blue work!
That coffee table is great! The first thing that came to mind is to keep the blue, but cover it with white contact paper that you've cut a design out in the center. Like follow the shape along the outside with cutouts of dogwood flowers in the center so only a little blue shows through. Or use the pieces you removed from the contact paper instead. Either way would be neat. It's definitely a happy blue. The best part is that you can change the color and cutout when ever you want very easily. As for the frame, you can get a colored wax rub for furniture. It revives the color and is inexpensive.
OMG! My mom has 3 sizes of those blue top tables, very nice. I also thought you were showing us a swimming pool, lol. I painted my kitchen burnish clay, it a gray color. It is always changing color depending on lighting. I like it but I don't love it. My friend did her living room a gray color and I liked it a lot. Maybe kitchens shouldn't be gray. Have fun choosing paint, it's not easy.
Di
woah...so cool! I could totally see this in this living room:
http://6thstreetdesignschool.blogspot.com/2011/03/adore-magazine.html
with the legs painted white...and some chic white accessories on top! This is so cool!! :)
Thanks for the great ideas, all! I think the blue is growing on me...I can totally work it somehow.
@Erin -- yes, very tricky to take on a family piece. My grandmother was just going to trash it, and even said it needed fixing up, so I feel like I "rescued" it. No one else in the fam offered to take it, but now that someone wants it, they have ideas about what should happen to it! Ah, family...
@Diane -- you should definitely hang onto those tables! And picking the right gray seems like it'll be a challenge...
@Christina -- Whoa, I love the colors in that room! White and blue combos seem to be really in right now...that's a great idea for the table. I might have to get family permission before I pick up a brush...
I would have rescued it too, I love most of the pieces in Memere's house in some way. I think breaking up the blue somehow would be good. Rob mentioned maybe doing some broken tile on top. And I say you do with it what you want; your the owner now :)
Thanks, Mon! I'm still undecided on what to do, but hopefully no one will mind with however it ends up :) The broken tile is a good idea!
Wow, that coffee table is really nice. Funny thing about it, after I took a good look at the pics I realized I have the matching end tables that go with that coffee table.
Post a Comment