our kitchen table

to start - we have no kitchen counter space here in the Framboise Manor kitchen - like none!!!

and we brought our pier 1 imports, fancy bamboo table that looked great in our old house but sucked bad here. thank goodness we also brought our plain, old, big, blonde wood table as well. after a short period of time here, we realized that the fancy bamboo table wasn't working for us at all. so we promptly gave it to our friend kelly. and got out the big, old blonde one!

my friend Jennifer did something really interesting with her kitchen table years ago. she drew on it all of the places that her children were born, all of the places that the family was stationed and everywhere that they had been. i always loved the idea!

when we brought out the big, old plain table, it worked great as a substitute counter space. fiiiinallly - we had some counter space for chopping, cutting, making bread, pizza dough, etc.

but it was plain and i have a thing for wanting things to be fancy and pretty. so i tried different table cloths that we already had - they didn't work at all - because we were using the table as a counter. so then i tried different place mats and centre pieces - but again - because the table is our extra counter space, there is no room for fancy place mats, table cloths or centerpieces.

and then i remembered what Jennifer had done to her table...and was inspired!

here is the plain old table being sanded, distressed and ready to be painted. oh and by the way, our new kitchen cupboard with our beautiful red sink is white. so are our appliances. so i wanted the table to be white on top - and distressed for that chabby chic look!



here it is painted white and with a coat of spar varnish so that it is waterproof (spar varnish is also good for boats!).



after the paint went on, and before the spar varnish, i sanded and distressed the tabletop again. and then started drawing on it. i used a heavy bevel scraper. i loved the way it turned out.



here it is living in the kitchen window. my new kitchen counter! and the table that we spend so much time at!



using a bbq skewer i drew in the word "forever". cuz we are forever kind of people!



and here is the finished product. i love it. it has a centrepiece built into it and works fantastically as a counter top. and every time we are making food, or bread, or sitting at the table playing boggle (which we *frighteningly* do a lot!) - we get to see a reminder of the promise that we made to each other. that we are together forever!



together forever - in this crap-ass little cottage!