Top 10 Favorite Reno's - #6 Furniture

Renovations don't just happen to rooms and houses they can happen to anything - including furniture. I've worked on some fun furniture projects that we not only use daily but things I hope to keep in our family for generations to come.

When Pinterest first came out the thing to pin were pallets. Pallet walls, pallet beds, pallet tables, you name it, Pinterest can tell you how to make it from a pallet. Not as easy and practical as the internet came make it seem... I wanted a patio table that was large and in charge. A table that was made of recycled items and looked rustic but would hold up to the elements - all things that a pallet table would not provide. (Despite my efforts) I stumbled upon Ana White's Fancy X Farmhouse Table and was in love. On my weekly trip to the Habitat Re-Store I found the perfect top for the table, an 8' x 4' solid wood door for $40.

Not having the time or the tools necessary to get this table done for an event I enlisted my step-father to build it. He bought a few 2 x 4's and in a day the table was built. It.Is.A.Beast. It seats 10 and if ever there were a tornado one could find shelter under it since it's not going anywhere. I paired it with an 8' bench my other father had made a few years ago and some bistro chairs from Target and voila... I had a brand new table for 10 for just under $300.

Probably my favorite Habitat Re-Store find is our TV console. I've even had girlfriends try to buy it out from under me - not a chance. I wanted a long beefy piece that had drawers on the sides to store games, DVD's and blankets with doors in the middle to hide all the TV boxes. For $40 (seems to be the magic number at Re-Store) this beauty was all mine. I removed the handles, filled and sanded the doors and spray painted it. I opted for spray paint since the center doors had such intricate carvings, I wanted a paint that would get in all the nooks and cranny's easily. My favorite spray primer for any project is Zinsser's Bulls Eye at Home Depot. The coverage is great and goes on anything and everything without peeling. When the paint was dry I threw on some new handles from IKEA and it was ready. What once was a masculine eyesore of a dresser is now a feminine, beautiful and functional piece for our family for less than $100.

The Lakehouse has an incredible back deck with an even more incredible view onto a lake. When I moved in Tommy Thompson had an old couch on the deck and a small glass table - not only was the couch gross from being outdoors but both were insufficient for our needs. Our backyard lends itself to outdoor entertaining, whether it be a dinner party, the three of us watching shooting stars or a small bonfire get together, we needed more seating. The farm had a lot of scrap wood so when I asked Tommy Thompson to build me a couch we shopped for wood in the scrap pile making this project super easy and inexpensive.

I wanted a long couch against the back wall with an equally large ottoman that could be across from the couch, pushed up next to it for an outdoor bed or on the side making it an L shape. Pops, Tommy Thompson's father, was in town for the week and those two knocked it out in a day. They had to build it in the shop since it was raining and when the time came to move it to the deck it took eight men to move each piece. Literally. This couch is going nowhere. I ordered thick foam from an auto upholsterer in town and stapled outdoor fabric to plywood on the underside of the foam to give the cushions weight. A year later this couch gets more use than the ones inside.