Living Room Completion Part I: Pretty Proud of These Tables

January 08, 2012

I must say, Hubs and I make a pretty good team. We have been hard at it finishing up the furniture for our living room and it could not have turned out any better.

(You should make it a point not to leave this page without scrolling down to the very bottom for the most awesome shrimp recipe you will ever eat. Guaranteed :) )

Before we decided to just build our own end tables, we had shopped around at furniture stores, not really liking anything we saw. I did see some glass-top round tables that I liked but they were sorta bulky for our narrower-than-normal living room. Once we built the red under-TV cabinet I knew I wanted the rest of the furniture in the living room to be red and have that antique look to it. Once again, I found a design we both liked, we bought the lumber, Hubs built them with exquisite craftsmanship :) and I finished them off by slapping some paint & glaze on them. That's teamwork :) 

With that said...here they are!

First thing's first: finding a design. This design would allow us to have a truly solid-oak table. Usually, table legs are made from a cheaper wood and doesn't paint & glaze the same as oak. Thanks Google Images! :)

Here it is after the first (and only) coat of red paint.


Crazy what a little antiquing glaze will do!

Finishing up the sofa table.

Same edges as the under-TV cabinet. Seems to hold the glaze pretty good.

This is the little funky-shaped table Corey built to go between our couch & loveseat. Built to fit like a glove

Isn't it cute? :)

Here are the other two tables: One for the other ends of the couch & loveseat.


Possibly my favorite part: Hershey is half-way finished!

I loooove this sofa table!

Here's a sneak peek of the rest of Hershey: Coming in the next few days :)

And here's our living room with all of the red furniture! Whataya think?
We think the red is a nice offset to all of the brown tones. Really we're just excited to have somewhere to sit our drinks while we're watching TV now.


On another note, here's something you will absolutely LOVE; the Bang Bang Shrimp recipe we tried Friday. It. Rocks.

You will never want to eat shrimp any other way. And it's SO easy. 3 ingredients for the sauce, that's it! Here ya go:


Bang Bang Shrimp

1 lb. shrimp, thawed, peeled, deveined, tails removed
1/2 cup mayonnaise (we use Hellman's)
1/4 cup Thai sweet chili sauce (by the other Asian sauces in a grocery store)
1/2 tbsp hot chili sauce (this is what will make it spicy; use more or less depending on your tolerance)
1/2 - 3/4 cup cornstarch, for coating shrimp

Mix mayo and sauces in bowl & set aside. Bread shrimp in cornstarch and deep fry until light golden brown. Drain on paper towel. Toss in bowl of mayo mixture and coat well. Serve topped with chopped scallions (We left these off. It's still good without them).

We also tossed some chunks of fried chicken in this sauce and they, too, were delicious! We think this sauce would also be good on a turkey sandwich or topped on a pork chop or something. We made a big bowl of it to try on whatever comes to mind next!


Well, that's it for Living Room Completion Part 1! I plan on finishing it up tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. For over 4 months we have lived here with hardly anything on the walls or any other decor in our main living area. I'm SO glad that those days are over. HGTV.com & Pinterest are awesome inspirations!




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4 comments

  1. Everything looks great!!

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  2. Thanks mom! I can't wait for you to see them in person :)

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  3. I have a feeling I will see them pretty soon...............better be ready to go to Kirklands!!!!

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  4. Sharon LampkinFebruary 16, 2012

    I see you have done an amazing job in your home and the shrimp does look yummy.

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