Bird Cage Dining Table

I hate throwing things away.  It is seriously hard for me to thrown anything out that I think I just might, someday, some year, be able to use for some thing.  My husband is the opposite from me in that respect.  If it's broke, chunk it, if we don't use it donate or else chunk it.  I have actually dug a couple things out of the trash that he has thrown out!  How bad and sad is that?  Digging through my own trash!

We import hand carved furniture by the container load.  In this business it is not uncommon to receive some damaged pieces.  My husband literally will just toss them into the trash dumpster but I...I really can't do it.  He usually does this when I'm not there.  I managed to keep a few pieces this time and although they've hung around the warehouse for a looong time I finally got inspiration (from many bloggers and especially Miss Mustard Seed) to go for it!

One of the pieces we received damaged was a 7' tall birdcage.  The cage is about 32-34" square and sits atop a table base and has a large dome that goes on top.

As you can see if you look at each top corner the finials are all broken off.  There were a few other minor dings and breaks which made this unsellable as is. The table base was broken as well.  I could not stand the idea of tossing this into the trash though, so I hid it from hubby in my dish room at the shop! ;-) 

After reading so many blogs and seeing all the great ideas with furniture redo's I finally found my inspiration for this piece and knew exactly what I'd do with it!  Now, whether it would turn out as I pictured, I can't say I was certain about that.  It made it a bit easier knowing that I did not HAVE to make this work perfectly since my husband would love to have trashed this anyway and I knew we'd never be able to sell it.  But, I was thinking it may just turn out kinda neat, traditional and yet somewhat whimsical.

I began with the domed top that would normally fit on the top of the bird cage and a can of white paint.  The white I chose is called French Canvas.  I liked the name before I saw the color! ;-)   I literally just spread out a drop cloth (actually a pool table cover), grabbed a brush, opened the can and away I went.  I painted this in a blotting and some stroking method as I wanted to leave some wood showing so that it would have an old, chippy appearance.  Can you tell I am NO expert at painting furniture?

Next came the base, which is the main bird cage.  The only thing about this project that was getting on my nerves is that there are a million wires and small, intricate pieces...I'd have had to have sprayed this if I really wanted a solid coat of paint.  My wrist was really tired after getting in all the grooves, crevices and wires.

After painting the cage portion itself I decided the base needed to be white as well. 

Ok, so now I have this bird cage base and domed top.  Well, next I rolled in a table top whose Chippendale styled base came in a million pieces.  I love how Miss Mustard Seed and alot of you other crafty, super talented furniture re-finishing gurus are leaving the table tops stained, so I simply applied the same paint technique around the lip of this table top and well-ahh:  I have a bird cage dining table!

The dome top is optional but I like it as a centerpiece.

Here are some pictures of a recent tablescape I created around this table.  I really like the way it all turned out!  Hope you do to!
Transferware is available HERE
Handpainted hydrangea glasses are available HERE
Birds, Gold beads, and Greenery are HERE

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