The more I live in my ‘new’ rig, the more I find that the library is missing some storage. It’s just too open and stuff gets piled up in it. I’ve been keeping my eye out for a low lying piece of furniture to put right by the front door. I thought of a credenza, dresser, or storage bench, but also liked the idea of two end tables to keep the storage configuration flexible.

Earlier this week, I spotted two free ‘oak’ end tables on Kijijiji and quickly offered the owner $10 if she’d keep them for me till today. She did and I drove east to Coaldale (10 minutes from the north end of Lethbridge or 20 minutes from home) to pick them up.

The reason she was giving them away is that one of them was the victim of a candle fire and the top is ruined.

I had second thoughts about bringing these home when I saw that they were being stored in a basement. They are made of particle board and definitely have the ‘old basement’ smell. But they have so many nice features that I decided to take a chance:

extra surface (I have some lovely contact paper to cover it!)

cavernous storage with a handy door caddy

I am going to leave them out in the sun for a few days (after having cleaned them).

If they still smell after, I’ll give them a couple of coats of verathane.

I have some ideas for how I’m going to make up for the burned top, but I think the easiest thing would be to make a padded cover for it. The top has a lip that could hold an elasticized cover. Part of the point of getting the storage unit is to get a place for the kitties to lounge in the sun, so I would have added a cushion regardless.