Friday Finds... and some news!

Welcome to Friday Finds. We love our city and enjoy exploring all its hidden gems as often as we can. While we both are from here, we find we are constantly discovering new reasons why Louisville is such an amazing place to live, work and play. It is our plan to bring you samples of these finds every week in our Friday Finds post; it is our hope that these finds will inspire you to get out and discover for yourself what makes where you live special, whether it’s here in Kentucky, or thousands of miles away. 

May 2014 was the beginning of a new era for IME; we got an office space!  Yes, we said goodbye to our cozy home offices (ok, they were really desks shoved in playrooms) and took a leap of faith signing a lease! Not only are we going to have an actual, professional space to work in, but we also get to decorate! 

One of our first purchases was an old, dusty table for $30 that we found on craigslist. The table was an ugly dull brown with terribly painted legs. At one time it must have had a leaf, but that was long lost.  The size and cost were right though, and when you on a budget you have to have a little vision. 

The decor plan for the office was simple. We want to keep the furniture and walls neutral and add pops of color with art and accent pieces.  But first thing is first, we cleaned up, removed the wood that was a part of the expanding mechanism and start sanding. Although it is the least exciting part of the process, this was probably the most important step. Our impatient natures to get things done had to be put on hold, because when it comes to painting furniture, adequent prep is key.

We decided to paint the table a nice clean white, but to make the legs pop with a splash of gold paint for a simple and fun feature. Originally our plan was to dip the legs in gold paint, but as with any do-it-yourself project we had to adjust our vision along the way! Dipping the legs looked messy, not part of the plan. We have found that some of our best ideas come in in working around obstacles; most of the time the changes will end up working out even better than your best laid plans. Instead of dipping the legs we used gold spray paint to create a chevron shape. In true working with what you've got form the shapeswere made from the corners of printing paper secured with painter's tape. It was very easy to execute and made for cleaner lines.  We call it intentional imperfection because nothing about them is exact or even measured, but they look awesome. 

Still the table didn't look finished. The final touch, again unplanned, ended up being adding a custom cut glass top to protect the table and make it more polished.  We love the finished project and in all it cost about $125 (including the custom glass top).  We will treasure it forever as our first office DIY project!