Transform A Craig's List Find Into a Chess/Checkers Table

In my other life, I have lent a hand decorating numerous friends' and relatives' apartments and homes over the year, as well as decorating probably 20 apartments before I purchased my first home.  Then the House and Gardens phase started :) 

I'm not exactly sure when this interest in interior decorating first arose; perhaps it is an offshoot of a thwarted artist; my parents did not see the value in me taking art lessons when a second grade teacher told them I had talent; and in 3rd or 4th grade, I won a blue ribbon in a city-wide competition for a painting I did of two cardinals on a branch.  That was the end of my painting career, alas.  My parents were proud of that blue ribbon, of course, but I distinctly remember an element of faint disapproval, too, or maybe it was fear -- like, where on earth did that come from?  We're just hard working plain folks...

By the time I got to junior high school and took art class (the schools back then still offered art and music classes back then, before the days of endless rounds of child-punishing budget cuts and bashing teachers for the unmotivated, uninterested students that resulted) drawing was no longer the passion it had been when I was younger; I was good, but not good enough to pull A's with no effort.  I tried a few projects and when the A's didn't come I said the equivalent of "meh" in 1960's terminology and skated through the rest of the class with my B level drawing.  At that age, I was getting interested in boys in a shy sort of way, and I also fell in love with all things history.  However, I think that interest/talent -- whatever it was -- just went underground.

Anyway, these days I read lots of DIY and decorating blogs.  In the days before blogs I read (and still read) Traditional Home and House Beautiful; and who hasn't had a subscription at one time or other to Architectural Digest???  Would also routinely devour any articles in Women's Day, Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, etc. etc. etc.  When specialty magazines came out, I would buy them -- on decorating.

Now, with so many wonderful things available online, my magazine subscriptions have been cut down, but not my interest.

So, it is a balancing act between my love for and interest in things chessly, archaeology, and writing (e.g., maintaining the blogs) and my interest in all things housely -- sewing, gardening, and especially decorating. 

This neat little remake of a table found on Craig's List caught my eye - simple but elegant :)

Before

After refinishing.

All of the details are at Pondered Primed Perfected {P3}from Sherry's August 17th post:

FREE TABLE TRANSFORMED TO GAME TABLE~ IC#12

(IC is for Inspiration Cafe, a neat feature of P3