Inspired by Gina

I was catching up on my blog reading and came across this post at The Shabby Chic Cottage. I thought - hey wait a minute, i've read this book before!

Gina turned a luggage rack into a side table. Why yes, I have totally read that book!

I've said it before, but i'll say it again. I bought my house the same month I graduated from college. I was young...and single....and making less than $10 an hour. Needless to say my decorating budget left a little something to be desired. 

I was lucky enough to have an AWESOME mom who bought a lot of stuff for me, but we were still on a budget and much of it was not new. A nearly new sofa being held hostage by a bitter soon-to-be-ex spouse. A vintage blender and toaster from yard sales (I still have AND USE those by the way), a vintage dresser and night stand from a friend of a friend...that sort of thing. Then we went to The Big Peach antique mall in Byron, GA for the first time on a girls weekend trip and there she bought me a large rattan trunk that I was going to use as a coffee table, a roll of old rusty barbed wire (that I turned into a wreath) and two mismatched luggage racks.

Now being the crafty, resourceful, cheap thrifty, gal that I am, I had scavenged and saved this n that over the years. Including some beveled glass table tops that one of my dad's former tenants left at one of his rental properties. Two pieces were from side tables. Fabulous! Easy peasy lemon squeezey - slap a glass table top on a luggage rack and voila - end table.

Ok, get ready to laugh. First, it's a picture of a picture, because I haven't hooked up my new printer, scanner, chopper, hopper, slicer and dicer yet. 

Yeah...college decor at it's best...circa 1995. Evidently it was Christmas time because there is a Christmas pillow on the couch. Along with the cheesy wolf throw blanket. Sweet. I'm sure there's another photo somewhere in a box (pre digital days), but you can see one of the luggage rack end tables. Sort of.

I left them as they were - one was sort of a matte metallic gold with fancy floral ribbon. The other was ivory with gold tips and a tan and brown ribbon with baskets of flowers on it. 

Eventually I got married and got some real furniture. The tables were dismantled, folded up and tucked in a closet with the glass tops for several years.  Then Mr. Paisley and I bought the cabin. Now on a budget for other reasons (like two house payments LOL) I pulled out my beloved luggage racks and glass tops again.

I spray painted the ivory and gold one burgundy (which is too raspberry pink for me, but I haven't bought more paint yet) and replaced the ribbon with upholstery ticking. Here it is in the downstairs bedroom at the Nest.

The gold one is still in it's original state - or at least original when I picked it up. It sits on my side of the bed tucked into the rafters doing what side tables do. Holding a lamp, the remote, a book...some dust.

I still love these somewhat makeshift tables. So if you need a cute side table, follow along with Gina and me and turn a vintage luggage rack into a side table or a night stand.