Guys, I have bad news. This is my last week of maternity leave. I realize this is probably only bad news to me, but I'm really sad about it. Mostly because, since we likely will not be having more children, I'm going back to work indefinitely. No more long breaks anytime in my future. So sad!
I have several goals this week but one is to get caught up on the blog. Lots has happened since the last time I posted - we went on vacation! - and I really want to get it all on here before I get busy with work and the real world again.
First, here's a quick little living room update we did. I have been wanting a smaller, less bulky coffee table for our living room and, after shopping around and not finding anything that I liked, Matt built me one!
Before I show off his handy work, here are pictures of the coffee table we've had for years. We purchased this one before we were even engaged so we definitely got our money's worth out of it. It has served us well!
Our cleaning ladies like to use a LOT of furniture polish so it was always super shiny. Also, I haven't been able to keep anything on it since there's a certain toddler that likes to push off anything sitting on it so she can climb up and have a front row seat for Frozen viewings.
The big coffee table combined with the ottomans from the chairs didn't leave much room on the floor for the kids to play.
Here's a view from the top. Nevermind that box full of balls over in the corner.
Matt used Ana White's Rustic X Coffee Table plans for the new table and did a great job putting it together! We modified the plan a little bit to make it more narrow. Her plans call for 5 boards across the top but we only used 4. (I wanted to use only 3 but got majorly vetoed on that.) After he built it, I used this stuff to make it look like driftwood and also spray-painted some hardware to put on it.
We added L-brackets to the corners and hex bolts on each of the legs to give it a little extra character.
When I first started staining it, I was a little upset that one of the top boards was red wood while the other three were white, but now I kinda like how unique it makes it. Can you tell that the third board from the left is more red than the others?
Here is a view from the top of both tables for comparison. It's hard to tell in the pictures but we gained at least 8 inches of space since the new table is not as wide as the other one. And, it's even a couple inches longer too, although it doesn't look like it in the picture.
We've been using it for over a week now and so far really like it! Hopefully, since it has a driftwood weathered look to it, it won't be noticeable as it gets bumps and dings from the kids. Now I'm debating if we should build a matching console table to go with it or not. Time will tell...