A Thing of Beauty

One day while visiting my mother at her job, I noticed a pitiful looking podium hanging out in the hallway. After a couple of weeks of it sitting in the hallway, I asked if it was up for grabs. After loading it up in my car, I took it home and placed it carefully (read dumped) it in my carport. There it sat for weeks. On a random visit, my SIL stated that she would love to have a podium in her classroom for holding her textbooks and materials. She teaches English to 9-12 graders. (God bless her for that!!) Once I had an intended person, it became a huge push to get this sucker refinished and headed to someone else's house!


As you can see, the podium had a pretty rough life. The original teacher's name was still on the underside. Come to find out, it was a former teacher of mine and if I remember correctly, this podium was in use when I was in the 6th grade. (Here's a hint, that was at least a day or two ago!)

After a serious sanding/scrubbing, we created a new lip for the front that was considerably more sturdy. Oh, the books my SIL will be able to stack up! After gluing on the new lip, I clamped it down and shot some nails in to help secure the edge. There it sat for a couple days, let's say I was making sure the glue was dry...


After the glue was dried completely and then some, I took it out to my special painting place. (For those of you not playing along, that's my back patio saw horses.) I primed the entire thing with a good coat of grey primer.


After priming I finished with 3 coats of my favorite Rustoleum x2 high gloss black paint. I must say, it is a beauty to behold now and a great recycled object!