Barn door coffee table

You might remember when Brad and I found this old barn door at an antique store last year that we just couldn't pass up.  We tossed several ideas around as far as what to use it for but the easiest and most practical was to make it into a coffee table.  We thought we would find something that could serve as the base but after looking for quite a while at antique and junk stores we didn't find anything.  So we decided to have Stan, the man who made our stair railing, make a base for it.  

It seemed really big at first but now I'm getting used to it and like it a lot.

Some of the things we found that could have been used as the base would have definitely competed with the actual door but this simple design compliments it well.  And he just used leftover material from our railing.

The door is NOT perfect and even has a couple of somewhat dangerous details. This piece of metal could hurt someone.  We may need to offer all guests a Tetanus shot as they enter our home.

And this sticks out just far enough to get someone's leg as they round the corner.  That someone will probably be Brad....  Luckily the one at the other end of the table is almost completely rotted off.  I'm guessing this end was the top of the door since it's basically still in perfect condition.

I'm so happy with how it turned out.  It's challenging to decorate because of the two raised panels but I'll deal with that just to know that no one else has the exact same coffee table as us.  

I do wish I knew the story behind it.  The lady we bought it from told us she rescued it from a pile that was about to be burned.  So I guess it's true that one man's junk is another man's treasure. 

Score!

For several months I've been looking for a LARGE window that I can use as a door to the study.  I look every time we go antiquing and haven't found anything even close.   I have found it on eBay a couple of times for around $300-$400, which wasn't completely unreasonable, but they were always somewhere close to Cleveland with no shipping option.  Driving a large window back from Cleveland did seem unreasonable.  So I figured that, worse case, we could have our builder or cabinet maker build something that would work.  Of course, where's the charm in that??

WELL....a couple weeks ago Brad and I went to two antique stores my friend Karey told me about in North Little Rock.  One had kind of fancy things in it so we didn't really find anything.  The other one was where we struck gold!  We found the window and it was only $80!  YAY!!!  Its not quite as big as we need it to be (its only 6'X4.5') but I think our cabinet guy can work on it so it will be the right size.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of it before we wrapped it up to move it.

We met a super nice lady at the mall named Geri.  She has a booth there and is really the sweetest person. She helped us with the window and as we were talking to her, she showed us an old door that she had.  It was marked $420 but she gave it to us for $250!  We didn't even ask!  She's just that nice.  She also sold me a drying rack for half price and a sled for 60% off!

Here's the door.  We have some ideas in mind for this but more than likely we will use it as the coffee table in the formal living room.  I think it will mix perfectly with the dark gray velvet sofa I have picked out for that room!

I really wanted this crate lid (which was not in Geri's booth) but I thought it was too expensive.  And I wasn't completely sure of what I would do with it.  Maybe I'll find one cheaper someday....

Brad and I both really liked this poster!  But it was expensive.  I've been interested in British History since college when I took 5 semesters of it.   This was from 1914 and even though I'm more interested in WWII, I still thought it was cool.  Maybe we'll find something similar at a better price if we keep looking.