Dumpster Diving

Several weeks ago, we went to a school event at our new building (our school is moving buildings this year while our current building is upgraded and expanded). The school that was in the new building before is getting a brand new building, with all brand new furniture, so they didn't want the stuff that was in this building. Our school didn't really need any of the furniture, since we had our own stuff as well, so the district decided to toss most of it and it happened to be outside, in and around a huge dumpster, the night of our event. Several of us snagged various pieces of furniture, including wooden teacher desks, 6 foot long solid wooden tables, teacher chairs, student desks, bookshelves, etc. I grabbed a small wooden desk, which was pretty beat up. However, it was solid as the day is long and I figured I could refinish it fairly easily, since it was all straight pieces. RF wanted to use it as a game table, but I decided I wanted to use it as a TV table in the living room. Here is the picture before I started working on it. You can see the scratches, gouges, and paint splatters all over it.

I took it all apart and sanded it all down and put poly on it. I don't like painted wood and I'm not a huge fan of stain on wood either, so I kept the natural color and used a clear coat. It was about as easy as I expected it to be, except for the fact that it has been a thousand degrees recently and I wasn't interested in working on it in the heat, so it has just been sitting in the garage. But I've decided to do some redecorating in other parts of the house and it all hinged on getting this table done, so I can repurpose, and get rid of, other furniture. Since the weather was nice on Friday, I hauled everything outside and hit it hard. We bought some new hardware (the bolts were all mis-matched and different sizes) and got it set up this afternoon

We are using the drawer for loose games and things and Xbox and controllers are perfect on the shelf. For a total cost of less than $4, for all new hardware, this is one of my better dumpster diving finds!