Mary Beth's Place: A Find that Surprised Me

I picked this table up from a lovely couple having a garage sale near me a few months ago. The husband said it was it his great aunt's and that she had used it as an end table with the leaf up and leaning against the wall. He sheepishly showed me the scratches he had put in it as a little boy with his toy cars.

I thought I was buying an end table. However, when I was taking it out of my car the top swiveled. My first thought was "Oh no, it's broken, how am I going to fix this?"

But then I started playing around with it. The entire top swiveled, and when you rotated the top and lifted one side of the leaf, it revealed a small "secret" compartment!

I wasn't really sure if I had a valuable antique, so I did a lot of research before I started painting this piece. I ruled out that it was not a genuine Duncan Phyfe table, but a copycat that was mass marketed pre-World War II. It was used as a card table for bridge, pinochle and other activities. How cool that you can use this as an end table, then when the ladies were expected, pull it out and open it and have an instant table?

Because the gauges on the top were pretty deep, refiinishing and staining was not an option. I opted to go with ASCP Old White, because I wanted a neutral color that could go with many decor colors. Fortunately, there was no "bleed" after I primed it. I've found that when painting with white, it's best to prime first. This sometimes saves a 3rd or 4th coat in the expensive paint. I gently distressed the piece, waxed the piece, and sanded the top down with very fine sandpaper on the top to get a really lovely sheen.

After a few weeks on Craigslist it still hadn't sold, so I gave it to my friend to sell in her monthly flea market booth. She sold it within an hour! I'm told it's now living in a restored Victorian home. I bet it looks great there. I'd love to find another one of these tables to keep for myself in the future!