DIY’ing a vintage tulip table.

Almost three years ago exactly I found this vintage tulip table at one of my favorite shops here in Salt Lake Fantastic Mr. Finds. You cant tell from the picture but it was pretty beaten up. The base was badly scratched and the paint was chipped. The table top was dinged and the underside was warped.
But I didn’t care.
I fell in love with it and knew with a little TLC it could be beautiful again.

So I strapped in on the top of my minivan and brought it home.
You should have seen the Mr’s face when he pulled up to the house to see this thing flipped upside down on the top my the car.

My plan was to replace our farmhouse table with this vintage Burke.

I loved that farmhouse table but it was a little too long for the space. I had good intentions of selling the farmhouse table but it got lower and lower on the to-do list as time went on.

As for the tulip table…I took the white top off and donated it. Then I had the tulip base powder-coated and nice crisp white for $75.
Then it sat.
And sat.
And sat.
And sat in our basement for almost three years until that one fateful day when I was ready.

Truth be told, one of the reasons it took me so long to bring up the table was because marble and fabrication is no cheap ticket. My plan was to find a remnant to cut instead of having to purchase a whole slab. Unfortunately, remnants are small and just that…a remnant of a slab. Finding a white piece of marble to fit my 70″ x 45″ shape was next to impossible. Having said that going this route would be much less expensive than buying a new tulip table which cost several thousands. Even the reproductions cost way more than what I could do mine for.

Buehner Marble did the fabricating of the marble. All said and done it was around $1400. Again, not cheap but just trying Googling Saarinen and check out the prices.

I was so excited I neglected to take a picture of how we put it together but the Mr. cut a piece of plywood which the attached to the tulip base. There is about a 9″ marble overhang around the plywood base. We then attached the marble to the plywood base using an industrial strength adhesive.