Apparently the house has been empty for many years and the grown children of the couple decided that instead of cleaning out the property it would be better to give it up and let others deal with it. What does that mean for pickers? Heaven! So even though we were one of the first to arrive there were so many people! The house was in a sad state. Filthy, junk everywhere and literally 60 years worth of accumulation. But we were lucky enough to acquire some amazing items! (keep an eye out for more of those!)
One of them being this telephone table, also known as a gossip bench. It's vintage circa 1950's, painted in a horrible dark brown. The feet on the legs are metal but were so badly rusted you couldn't tell at first glance. So after thinking on it for a while we decided to brighter this little lady up with a bright, creamy green color.
After quite a bit of scraping, sanding and priming we started with the green color.
Then we decided to do something a little unconventional with the hardware and the feet. They weren't in great shape, nor were they a pretty metal like brass or nickel. So I decided to break out the dremel and some CLR!
There was quite a bit of rust to remove, but once we cleaned it up I used a silver metallic automotive spray enamel (very durable). The problem is that when you put spray paint into a cup or container it dries fast, gets gummy... it's definitely not meant to be applied with a brush. Add a little Slo-Dri blending medium and use a cheap, disposable brush for something like this! It ends up looking like a brush, swirled metal. I really loved it. I taped off the hardware and went to town!
SHAZAAM!
We listed this table in our Etsy store. In the few short weeks it was available almost 800 people marked this as a favorite and it was included in several treasuries! I was happy to see how many people appreciated this piece of history as much as we did. :)
We really focused on adding a freshness to such a fun item. Love it!
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