Around the house: Story of the new old farmhouse table

If you told me a decade ago how excited I would be one day to post photos of my kitchen table, I wouldn't have believed you. But here we are. And I'm oh so excited.

We love furniture and artwork that represent special places and people in our lives. Enter this farmhouse table. Forty-two years ago, Jeff's paternal grandfather built the table for Jeff's parents, and it was their kitchen table while Jeff was growing up. By the time I arrived on the scene, the table had been dismantled and stored in the basement.

When we moved into our new house this summer, his parents offered us the table. We trekked down to the basement and tried to imagine the table assembled and standing in the middle of our kitchen/living room. It was in desperate need of refinishing and the crossbar had a scalloped edge that wasn't to my taste, but the piece had great bones. As we debated whether it was worth "editing," refinishing and transporting eight-plus hours to our house, Jeff's parents offered to hire someone to refinish it and then they would transport it to us as a housewarming gift. Yes! A million times yes, we told them!

We asked for the tabletop finish to coordinate with our dark kitchen cabinets and the legs to match our bright white trim. They hired Bruce Bartow (Woodworks by Bruce in Wilmington, DE) for the job. Last weekend, my in-laws pulled into our driveway in a rented van they had driven down the East Coast to deliver the table. It couldn't have turned out better.

Now let's back up and look at our original table (below). I acquired it 10 years ago when I was furnishing my grad school apartment. I can't tell you how many articles were written, photos were edited and artwork was created on this table over the last decade. But the finish didn't match any of the wood in our house, and the tabletop had become warped; all the girls' crayons and markers would roll onto the floor as soon as they set them down. With the arrival of the new/old farm table, we retired the grad school table to the screen porch, where I'm sitting enjoying 80-degree weather as I type this post.

Back to the farmhouse table. I can't wait to see all the little masterpieces the girls make while sitting here.

(Can you spot my sick little assistant?)

We pulled some of our dining chairs in to use with the table for now, but I plan to order a set of galvanized or gunmetal chairs as soon as I narrow down my search. I'll post an update when they arrive.

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