We built a table...

now what? Since moving into our new house there's a spot in our family room that needed a skinny sofa table. So I've been stalking craigslist, going to thrift shops, I even checked out some furniture stores (in the rare chance they had something I could afford). This all resulted in failure. Not a single item even close to what I was envisioning.

Then yesterday my cousin told me about Ana White and her plans for building a variety of things. That's where I discovered this table which is pretty much exactly what I wanted. Except about half the size. So off we all went to the lumber store. Here's a helpful hint: don't take 2 year olds with you.

We purchased our lumber, bought some screws, bought a saw and a drill and we were in business. Time to build a sofa table. We hit a few snags in the process. For example neither of us knew how to use the saw. It kept doing this weird kick back thing, but a phone call to my dad cleared that up, and throughout the day (mostly when the babies were napping and sleeping) we slowly built this thing.

Measuring. I'm pretty impressed that I managed to re-work all the calculations from the original plan to make sense for the size we needed. I haven't actually had to think about math in a real way in years. 

Our table legs. It's a nice sign that they stand independently. (Notice the walker it came with the house. A sign you might live in a church parsonage). 

Eli came out to see what we were doing after he woke up from his nap. Safety first (or safety third if there are any Dirty Job fans out there).

Marcus using the saw (we're clearly professional using TV tables as our board holding device, what are they even called?)

It kind of looks like a table. 

All done! It looks pretty good especially if you don't inspect it too closely haha. There are a few special areas due to our lack of experience. 

In the space where I want it in the house.

So now here's the next question. We still need to sand and then either paint or stain. This is where we have some conflict. Marcus wants to stain it and leave the wood more in its natural state. I want to paint it a bright fun color. Either a blue or a sage green. I like fun bright colors and right now my house is so blah. I want more color. 

So anybody have any thoughts. Stain or paint? 

Will I totally destroy it if I paint it?