Saturday, April 20, 2013

Re-do ......Turned an over 25 year old Ludwig drum into a coffee table for my Daughters 26th birthday

It's finished and I am loving it!  I am so happy how this coffee table turned out. 

As your children get older sometimes it gets harder to find that perfect birthday present for them.  My oldest daughter Crystal turned 26 this past March and had recently moved in with her partner. I was asking Crys what she wanted for her birthday and she was saying how they were going to re-do their condo and would love stuff for that. At that point I remembered my mother-in-law telling me she had this old Ludwig drum under her house in storage that she always wanted to turn into a coffee table.  I told Crystal about it and she loved the idea.

I sent my husband off to retrieve it and when he brought it home I was a little worried about it. It was old and rusty but still in good shape. I had the girls come over to check it out and see if they would really like this as their new coffee table.  They saw the potential in it like I did.

They are big music fans.  Megan has saved a bunch of concert tickets and autographed photos that she had from their past concerts. I took those along with a old newspaper clipping from the UK that was an advertisement of a  Bob Marley album. I also included a picture of Crystal's dad and uncles band from back in the 80's (Cherry Blonde).  I arranged them on the top of the drum pad so they would be displayed underneath the glass top. I found the glass table top on Craiglist and it rests perfect on top of the tuning keys. The glass top is thick and heavy perfect for the top.

The girls decided that it would look best if I just cleaned it up and didn't re paint it or anything. I was thrilled that they saw the beauty in this old beast!  Every scuff and scratch that is left on it makes it even more unique! 

If you are curious to know how I got this old drum cleaned up I will tell you.  With a lot of elbow grease from my boys and I!   Plus a paste that I created from vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice.  I used the paste to soak off the rust on this bad boy and it cleaned up very well!  I was amazed how well that paste did in removing the rust!



Here is the dirty drum up close with the paste soaking up the rust.

Here is the side view of the drum. It is a grey/blue with a pearl white stripe in the middle. There is this strip at top that is sparkly but it is old and worn so it's not too shiny which I like.

Here is the top view of the table. You can see all the concert tickets that the girls have saved. Yes, that's a picture of Adele in there! Very cool.