Curbside Treasures and What are We Going to Do with Them

Seriously R should go pro.  He is finding so much stuff that I just can't keep up.

The first item was a newish metal and glass computer table (rt side of photo) with a pull out keyboard shelf.  I can't use the table but the rectangular shaped piece of glass went into my glass stash.  I have round, square, and rectangular pieces that I can use to make a small table top or a shelf.  

The photo below shows the computer desk without the glass because I had already added it to my stash pile of tempered glass.

You can buy pieces like this at Pier 1.  But why buy when it's free.  I've given a few pieces away to people who have asked me " where can I get a piece of glass for a table top?"  

Don't use single window pane glass for a table top or shelf.  You need to use tempered glass which is stronger and will break into a million little pieces rather than large jagged pieces that are dangerous.

The other curbside treasure was a glass top coffee table with a metal bottom.  The glass top is a bowed rectangular shape.  There was a $5 sticker on it from a garage sale.  The glass is worth more than 5 bucks.  It looks like no one bought it at a garage sale so they put it out to the street.

I'm keeping just the glass from this piece, too.  I love the shape.  I already know what I am going to do with it.  I have several cast iron sewing machine bases that I have purchased over the years.  One in particular is just the ends and the steel rod that the foot treadle rode on.  I wish I had a photo of it to show you but I could not find it in the barn or the basement.  I'm pretty sure it is in the barn but it was about 120 degrees up in the loft so I might have been looking right at it and could not see it.

I will need to get a longer rod so I can extend the sides to accommodate the longer piece of glass.  I am hoping to add two additional rods at the top for greater stability.  Fingers crossed that there is an appropriate place to drill a hole.

Of course it will be painted in satin black and should make a nice console table for the deck.  I have a narrow area on the deck where I think this will work perfect.

I could also use it as a sofa table behind one of my vintage wrought iron Woodard sofas. One of my Woodard lamps would look perfect behind a Woodard sofa.  They are pretty rare and I have 4 of them.  I have yet to run across any other lamps.  

I was lucky that I got these.  I was buying a Woodard tea cart from a seller in Owosso, Michigan (home to Woodard Furniture) and I mentioned to the guy that I collected Woodard furniture and was using the tea cart in my older home.  He then asked me if I was interested in lamps. I asked 'what kind of lamps' and he said 'Woodard'.  I said 'of course' even though I had no idea what a Woodard lamp looked like.

He said he wanted them to go to someone who liked and appreciated Woodard furniture and asked me not to resell them.  He said his late father worked at the Woodard factory and these were his.  I agreed not to resell and asked 'how much?'and that is when he said '10 bucks each'.

I was thrilled.  One of the lamps is the oak leaf acorn pattern that I have a lot of pieces and the other three are the daisy pattern.  Once they are all painted the same color as the furniture it will not matter one bit if the pattern is different or not.

Oh man, have you ever not been able to find something in your house then all of a sudden out of the blue, you remember where you think you have put it?  It just hit me that the cast iron sewing machine base might be in the garden shed or the sun room (excess project furniture storage room).

Both the metal desk and coffee table base will go out to the curb where I am sure a scrapper will pick them up before the trash truck shows up.  It's the beauty of recycling and reusing.