Curb Alert: DIY Drawer Knobs on Roadside Table

I wish I had more luck with finding free stuff, but I honestly don't try that hard. Usually, if I see something on the side of the road, there's another vehicle right behind me so I'm reluctant to slow down or make a sudden pull over. Also, I live in fear of bed bugs. Do not want. But this one time, I saw some stuff left over from a yard sale and I grabbed this thing:

That's actually not what it looked like when I found it. (And that was a long time ago.) Instead of hauling it up to my apartment, I dropped it in my parents' garage with the intent of sanding it there before painting. It was that blue color you see on it. Because I have a nice dad, he sanded it up for me before I could get a "before picture." I was super excited it about this, not just because of the free-ness, but because of the legs. Mid century tapered legs make me swoon for some reason. When, I see something sitting on those little legs, I always want to bring it home. Oh, and I also found this thing alongside the little leg drawers:

Some kind of circus themed wall art. Almost looks like wood puzzle pieces stuck on a board.

I love the hidden secrets you sometimes find in secondhand items. Like the papers and pictures that fall out of used books. Inside this drawer, is the scrawled writing of a boy teen girl (I assume.) Check it out:

I take bad pictures, sue me.

 It says "I love Raymond Veen...er,something" (I can't accurately make out the last name.) Some young chica liked this dude so much that she inked it in big, bold letters--hiding it in the bottom of a drawer. I remember this kind of behavior from when I was real young, like 11 and getting mad crushes on the fellas at school. But, wait! What's that? A date in the corner to mark the day this piece of art was created?

The date is 8-21-86. That's my birthday! OMG, cool! Perhaps it was fate that brought me to this discarded little bedside table. I'm kidding, it's not. Nothing happens for a reason!
I picked up some of my usual light seafoam greenish paint from a craft store and once I got it home, I pretty much started slapping it on this table. That's how I operate; impulsively. I'm relatively sure that primer should've been involved, but I reasoned with myself that a roadside find should look shabby. Once I had a few coats on it, I screwed in the new knobs that I got at Hobby Lobby's knob section. Here's what I ended up with:

 

Yeah, I photo-edited to get the color looking right. I love the monogrammed knobs that I've had on it for the past several years, but they really don't match with the mid-century vibe I should've given this piece. I thought about several things I could use to update the knobs. Not actually those particular knobs, I had some plain wood ones that I took off a little cabinet that I planned on using. Knobs (hilarious word, I giggle because I keep typing it.) I thought it could be fun to go novelty by gluing something onto them, so I looked at my collection of small decorative crap.

Oh, for chrissake, I've got to take better pictures...anyway, those particular state puzzle pieces were chosen for their orange color. I also considered buttons, ampersand stickers, poker chips, and Scrabble tiles as something to possibly glue onto the wooden knobs. I chose the poker chips for their old timey, '60s look. I slapped some orange-y red paint on before using the glue gun to attach chips to knob.

I actually liked the way I tacky-ly hacked those knobs. So, why stop there? I had two rolls of washi tape that I had never used. Perhaps that would look cool.

I love that "faux-bois" look, but this washi tape doesn't look as "faux" as I thought it would. I wanted it to look it wasn't trying to be real wood. I tried the other tape.

As much as I liked the way it looked, from a distance, it kinda made the piece look like it was for a kid. I left one wood tape stripe on top, and a flower stripe in the middle. It's easily peeled washi tape, so I don't have to commit.

So, what I've learned it the best way to take pictures is with natural light and I seem to run out since the daylight saving time change. I tried to flood the room with artificial light and ended up with some lousy looking pictures. My bad.