The Urban Cottage: When one door closes, make a patio table!

Do you hate your old patio table, but also hate the price tag that comes along with a new one?

    Yep, me too! My old patio table is one of those round tables with a glass top that constantly looks dirty, well because it's glass and there's dirt outside! Now, I could go out every morning with glass cleaner and some elbow grease and keep it shiny and clean, but, no thanks!  Not to mention it was missing two chairs that happened to be in the way of a falling tree :(
   Since our insurance company gave us roughly $100 to cover the loss of the chairs, I thought I'd check out the local stores to find a couple of matching replacements. No luck. Hmmm, how about just buying a new patio set? My loving, yet practical husband said "No". OK, well I had to agree with him, the ones I liked, of course, were too expensive. And frankly too matchy-matchy and cookie cutter, if you know what I mean ;)
   That's when I brainstormed, came up with plans A, B and C, and checked out Pinterest. Here's my board to follow the pins that inspire me http://pinterest.com/burtalisia/boards/. I happened to get a door for free when I came along this pin on Pinterest

staceyembracingchange.com

Eureka! What a great idea!

I gathered my supplies:

Old table (free)
Old chairs (two from thrift store, four from my local ReStore)
Two cheap sawhorses from Menards
Paint and brushes
Sander, Saw and Drill

I planned:

OK, well clearly unless I expected the table to come up to people's chins, this would require a little more work. Here's where the saw (and my husband, Scott) comes in.

We needed to shorten the legs (obviously), but I wanted to cut them at an angle so that they'd lay flat on the ground and not wobble. This was a table not a teeter-totter after all! Scott claimed that his saw could not cut at an angle. We would need to get a different saw (from my awesome in-laws, who live 20 minutes away). I'm impatient - sometimes, OK, usually - and said "Really? There must be something we can do." This is when I decided to take a look at the saw myself. "Hmm...What are those numbers for?", I asked, "Isn't that for cutting at an angle?". I hate it when I'm right, I really do, OK, you caught me, I love it!

Next, I gave the door a good sanding with my electrical hand sander. It was my birthday present last month! Yep, some ladies ask for flowers or a nice dinner out, me, just an electric sander please!

Then it was time to get painting. Luckily I found this outdoor paint leftover in the basement!

I had a couple of helpers!

I freshened up my old mosaic table with some teal spray paint.
I put a piece of cardboard on the top to protect the tile mosaic.
I used the same process to spray paint four of my chairs green,
while keeping the seat white.

Next, I took the my old, faded and grungy looking outdoor pillows and made new covers for them. I used the old pillow covers as templates. I also re-upholstered old seat cushions. There may have been, one or two SOS calls to my mom during this phase. OK, she might have come and actually shown me how to use my sewing machine :)