Constance Old recently sent us a compelling email: “After our comments exchange on your post about “American Pickers” I had a feeling I might see this table again that location agent Andrea Raisfeld plucked from my car and reworked.”

And sure enough, the little table appeared completely transformed on Andrea and her husband Bill Abranowicz‘s blog A + B See:

“Andrea is a proud dumpster diver. Much of the furnishings in our homes were procured from places other than a store. While we buy plenty, we love the thrill of the find at a tag sale, side of the road pick-up, or thrift store. It’s part of our reduce, re-use, recycle philosophy.

On a recent scout to one of her client’s homes, the homeowner, artist Constance Olds, pointed to a car filled with all kinds of stuff  destined for the thrift store. Andrea peered into the back seat, and spotted a small wooden table. Constance originally purchased it at a thrift store to use as her daughter’s drawing table, and had always intended to repaint it herself, but years later still hadn’t gotten around to it, and now the daughter was adult sized. Within hours of getting it home, we had it painted.

I love my dumpster diving momma!”

Now that is Creative Re-Use! Here’s how they did it:“We spray painted the table a high gloss finish, let it dry and then with a wood graining tool from woodworker.com did the surface.

Mix a contrasting color of paint–we did a light ivory epoxy resin–1 part paint to 2 parts mineral spirits. Brush this solution over the surface and then, drag graining tool over the wet surface in a straight line, wiping it clean and repeating until complete.

Rock the tool slightly as you drag and the grain is created. You should move from opposite ends of the surface to vary the grain as well. It’s really easy to do.”

Related post: Constance Old’s Hooked Rugs

All of Constance’s finds for ‘the improvised life’

Thanks a million Constance and Andrea and Bill!