Shezebo: A Dose of Frugality (Reimagining an Old TV Stand Turned Coffee Table)

Hola darlings!

I am so excited.  Tomorrow my Shezebo will be put together and installed by my contractor and his crew.  In preparation, today I cleared off the patio to make room for my Shezebo and work space.  Looks rather forlorn.

Before.

Pending.  Planters, table, birdbath moved out of the
construction zone.

Before.

Pending.  So sad - birds have been flying by looking for the
birdbath even as I type this; they have not yet discovered it in its new location!

One of the items I know I want in my Shezebo is a table that can serve both as a coffee/cocktail table and a side table.  That means something portable.  I had an idea in mind -- I wanted to have something on casters but not too tall, something with a shelf underneath the tabletop, and something in yellow.  I started by hunting for yellow coffee tables and saved photos of two possibilities:

Chatham House "Helena" Coffee Table at Bed, Bath and Beyond (no casters)
$97.49 with free shipping on orders over $29

Sauder Woodworking Soft Modern TV Multi-Cart 115.42 (on casters)
$115.43 and free shipping

I was looking for tables around $100 or, preferably, less.  I'm sure there are other options out there online, possibly something I'd need to spray paint and/or add casters on.  But, considering the amount spent for my Shezebo, the assemble and install, and all of the goodies that I probably did not need but went out and bought anyway, I decided to go the frugal way and shop what I already had in the house -- just begging for some casters and a paint job:

This painted in the early 1990s former TV stand (minus casters removed when said item ceased being used as a TV stand and was converted to a coffee table in the family room at the former Maison Newton), complete with burgundy stenciling on the top (thankfully, not shown in this photo).  What can I say?  Jewel tones were "in" when I first decorated my former family room, and the converted TV stand never changed its, er, spots when I ditched the jewel tones in favor of something equally gaudy but in lighter "updated" tones of copper, taupe, and beige.  LOL!  I know, I know, but it wasn't as hideous as it sounds :)

So, my poor lonesome coffee table that used to keep me company every day in the former family room as I sat at my desk looking out over my backyard gardens, was banished to the unused wreck of a rec room in my current retirement abode because there was no place for it upstairs. 

But fear not, little table, you have served me well since I first purchased you in 1971 except that one of your casters fell off and disappeared somewhere along the line of many moves from apartment to apartment, while in college, while in law school, to first home, to storage, to second home, to third home.  You have proved sturdy and true, and I am not one to ditch my friends just because they're "old fashioned."  Hell, so am I!

I have a plan, TA DA!

New casters - little ones with stops on them!  And a lovely yellow spray paint that was on sale for $2.99 a can at Menards!  Total cost under $9 including sales tax.  Now all I have to do is put down some plastic and/or newspaper, clean up the table, prime it (I have spray primer on hand), and voila, I will have a beautiful new rolling coffee table.  

Inspirations from Bloggers Everywhere...

There is no end to blogs devoted to decorating, gardening, and DIY, and I cannot visit them all.  That is not to say that every single blogger out there writing about the same stuff I am doesn't have something worthwhile to say, because I know they do!  And so, I do my best to visit as many as I can...  I visit linky parties and blogs that are on the sidebars of blogs that I visit, because I never know what I'll find and some of them have become favorites, too.  In fact, my favorites list on my two laptops here at home and the computer at the office are all different and ever-expanding!

Here are some things I made note of during the past week or so.  Sometimes it's because I've got a certain thing on my mind, sometimes it's just because I find a particular project or - whatever - interesting or intriguing...

Visiting Shabby Nest's "Frugal Friday", I have found lots of things that catch my attention, either because I've had them cooking around in the back of my mind for awhile or they're things I've been working on around the house and/or have planned to work on in the future (like when I retire in 5 1/2 years...)

For instance, Little Things Bring Smiles June 1, 2012 blog on "Corner Gallery I."  Unique and perfectly executed.  My aspirations for a "gallery wall" are much more modest.  In fact, I had a gallery wall from about 2007 until 2009 that I had painstakingly put together over the years with well loved photographs from our various travels, on the lower wall of the open staircase to the second floor.  I wasn't visiting decorating blogs then and didn't know what it was called, it just seemed like a neat thing to do.  Unfortunately, when I put the house on the market in November (a big mistake and a horrible experience) I took it all down because it was considered "clutter" and "too personal" and would interfere with "marketing the house."  I didn't put it back up when I pulled the house off the market and fired the real estate brokers.  I was so exhausted by the entire negative experience over the holidays with those brokers who KNEW I was going to have house guests through the end of January, and I was incredibly demoralized by the whole experience.  Photos didn't go back up on the wall.  House stayed in what I considered a bare-naked state because - why bother?  Now all of those photos tucked away still inside their totally mismatched frames are calling out to me from cardboard boxes in the spare closet upstairs...

The primary thing that was on my mind last week, though, was doing something to spiff up my deck area because I'd decided that the ladies of the investment of which I am a member would meet out there this past Sunday after we met at a local restaurant for breakfast.  We had a lot of business to attend to, and I wanted them to be comfortable but not distracted.  Usually we just sit around my round table in the small dinette area between kitchen and family room -- right where the patio door invites us to step outside.  There are five of us, but one of us couldn't make it last week Sunday, which was what actually triggered my sudden "brain storm" to have our meeting on the deck -- because I only have four chairs...

Ever since I started visiting Debbie Dabble's blog and saw her small but lovingly constructed and put-up-your-feet-comfortable back yard and porch area (front porch is comfy too, looking out over a postage-stamp size garden to one side and across a walkway, then a massive and steep slope down to an asphalt parking lot, waaaaay below...), I've been feeling the slow itch build to do something with my own deck area, which has never been more than basic and that was good enough.

Inspiration recently flowed from Debbie's June 5, 2012 "Patio and Plants 2012!"  More correctly, I should say that it was the final push I needed to try and do something a bit more with my own outside living space.

And It's Overflowing June 6, 2012 "Loving Tall Planters (the Look for Less)" -- yep, I can dig that look for less :)

And Cupcakes and Crinoline's June 5, 2012 "Front Yard Makeover - Before and After" -- you can just see how much hard work, blood, sweat and tears she put into bringing in an overgrown and neglected garden back to life -- gorgeous gorgeous life!  Can I buy your yard???  Can I hire you to come to my house and attack my overgrown, weed-infested flower beds???

By rights, I cannot say that Kristin's Creations patio (I have a serious crush on her house) inspired me to do my "spruce-up" on my deck this past Saturday because I didn't see it until today.  First, I have a deck, be it ever so humble -- gave up my pea gravel "patio" (har!) back when BIL Fred decided one day to grant me a wish and built a freestanding deck that has held up over the past 10 plus years.  Kristin' Creations has a patio, although she may have a deck or two tucked around that house, too.  Can't tell you that -- I haven't looked at all of her blog entries or pictures -- but I can tell you that I think her patio area is just perfect!  All it lacks is an umbrella to provide a bit of shade.  I'm a shady lady, what can I say?  Of course, she probably have plenty of other shady areas for sun-shy guests or when it's one of those just too intense days...  June 8, 2012 "Patio Flowers, Vacations, and a Mantle Revamp." 

Ach!  By comparison my deck "spruce up" doesn't compare to the gorgeousness of these garden-living spaces I've seen, but it was fun working on it all the same, and overall I am happy with it. Well, to be perfectly honest, Kristin's Creations made me want to run out and buy tons of flowers and try my hand at some free-standing gorgeous planters to anchor my space, but then I thought - nah.  Too much work!  Too much $$! 

More, later, but not tonight!