Quick before & after: adding class to a Home Goods clearance table.

One of the first places I started decorating when I pulled all my wall art out of storage was the entrance next to the front door.  I didn't really know what I wanted to do with the space and until last Friday, there were no pictures hung below the light switch panel.  The wall was entirely blank from there to the floor, where there was a sloppy shoe tray that was never put away after last winter, piled high with my summer sandals and whatever I kicked off when I came in.  I've made it a habit to take my shoes off when I come in because I really hate vacuuming the stairs.

As you can see, now there's a table and a sad gap in photos. I'd been hunting for the perfect table to fit in the space for a few months, but most were too wide or too expensive, and it's not like I was scouring Pier 1 or even Target for the perfect table.  Home Goods...on the other hand...

Home Goods can be hit or miss for me.  Sometimes the clearance furniture is too dinged up and still too expensive and this table was really pushing it for me, at $94.  There was another table, same shape, slightly smaller, no drawers, painted grey, for $69.  I thought the knobs looked cheap.

Cheap knobs = meh.

 Luckily for me, I had just been to Pier 1 that morning, where I had bought a demonic meowing cat pen for Brent and found they were selling glass drawer knobs, which I am a total sucker for.  Lowes and Home Depot glass knobs don't cut it for me--I'll buy them off eBay or Urban Outfitters or even stalk Anthropologie, and now finding Pier 1 sells them as well?

 Glass knobs add class.

It literally took less than five minutes to make such an improvement to a table that was otherwise boring.

 Other things I'm going to do with this table: since it's in the entrance, I'm going to put little holiday themed items here when the time comes, like at Halloween and Christmas. I filled the sad gap with my own art.

Before and After: Antique Doors Become Garden Bench

Last October, I was gearing up to build a large piece of furniture that this post will not be about.  However, I was out scouting for antique doors for it, and happened upon these free Craigslist doors.  (Picture isn't mine, I stole it from the ad).  There was a whole pile of doors, more than 10 of them, and I ended up going home with four and half of a door, even though I'd only needed two for my original project.

Ok, so I might have a tendency to hoard.  Might. Shush.

Once the other piece of furniture was built, I was left with the two green doors and 1/2 door that I couldn't pass up originally, even though I don't like green.  They were an odd size, not full size, and matching, and I really loved them.

Nine months passed and the green doors sat in my grandparents' basement, newly painted with a different green I'd chosen for them because I did have an idea for them that never came to fruition.  My grandfather, busybody that he is, hatched an idea for the doors since he'd lost faith that I'd ever use them.  He also had some leftover wood from another furniture project of mine from 2010.

Meanwhile, my grandmother loves to garden, and recently started picking different places in the yard to sit and enjoy her gardens, and my grandfather wanted to make her a bench, so I let him have the doors and a couple days later, this is what he made:

Old doors have new life as a garden bench.

Now, if only I could come up with an idea for the 1/2 door that's still left...

(January 2018 update: This bench has been pinned on Pinterest more than 40,000 times!  Thank you to all who share this lovely bench.  Unfortunately two trees fell on it in a wind storm last October and so the bench is no more.)