Project Kitchen Table Complete

At long long long last, our kitchen table is finally complete and looks great!  A little of two years ago, I inherited a table.  A pink table...

This table is not just any pink table.  It is the table that came included with my grandparents' house, which is now my parent's home. I think it safe to say, it not used as a kitchen table by my grandmother who had seven kids, but it was kept safe and unharmed.  I am not sure how it became in my Uncle Larry's possession, but when we was moving from his home he offered it to me and I could not resist.  I knew that I wanted the table, because it had a history but I also wanted to make the table a little more me.  And so my project began. 

A hobby of mine is called decoupage; basically you take cuttings and glue them to an object.  In the year prior to the table, I had  made boxes for my best friends, a tray for my mom, and a box to hold things for my dad.  My dad loves beer, he used to make his own and now he just loves trying different ones.  So his box was covered in beer labels that I had managed to get off bottles.  I really liked the end result so I decided to do a similar thing on the table with beer and wine labels.  There was one rule: I was not going to repeat a label. And so I began the winter before going to medical school on my table.  I thought it wouldn't take me anytime at all.... I truly could not have been more wrong.  The whole thing was quite a process.  

Step One: Collect different bottles from anyone you can.  I had many unusual encounters with waiters asking to keep the bottle and I even had friends from afar sending me labels in the mail.                         Step Two:  This was a really tough one, get the labels off the bottles.  I have learned their are labels with hardly any glue and labels that are practically sealed on.  My little trick became boiling the bottles to help soften the glue and burn my fingers.                      Step Three: Glue labels on.

And then you repeat steps 1-3 for about two years and you get...

 But Dan and I decided that we wanted the table to be useful, an every day table.  We did not want to worry about spilling on it or anything like that so we ordered a piece of glass, which arrived this morning.

And so now our beautiful table is complete and I love the way it came out.  The great thing about the table is not necessarily the way it looks but how much of a history it has.  It was my grandparents' table in my dad's home that my uncle gave to me.  Dan and I tried many different beers and wines (many of them to our distaste) so it has some of our history.  When my friend Adrienne went to Africa she brought some labels back, the best souvenir.  Another friend, Aviva who lives in Oakland, Ca shipped me some labels.  And whenever Lauren came over for dinner she was sure to bring something that had a label we were missing.  My parents, grandmother, aunt, uncles, and so many other friends had a part as well.  So while I may not get to see all of these people every day, and for some not even every year, they will have a small presence at every meal Dan and I share and I just love that about our table.