What's On My Coffee Table

My coffee table is a big old wooden shipping crate, with wonderful texture and rustic details like...

The original wood lid, complete with rusty bolts in the corners...

Faded black stenciled lettering on the front and back...

Deep dovetail joints, chunky wood handles on the sides, and old metal strips around the bottom edge.

I found this handsome old box at a little primitive antique shop in town, out in the "clearance garage" with the marked down Christmas and Halloween decor. It wasn't priced, so I went back inside to ask about it, fully expecting it to be too expensive...

Nope. It was $20. The find of the century!

For a while, I had it tucked beside the little white desk that is tucked behind the leather couch, so that I could tuck the power strip and computer cords behind it. But for such a great piece, it was a little too "tucked away". So a few days ago, I moved my more traditional coffee table to the basement to give this box more room to shine, and I love the rustic, slightly industrial touch that it adds to the room.

On top of my coffee table, I have a deep wooden bowl filled with different kinds of twine. Actually, the bowl's not wood at all... it's one of those reproductions made of hard resin, but who can tell? I use twine all the time around the house, and this way it is right at my fingertips whenever I need it.

There's balls of jute craft twine, an antique wooden spool with bright blue paint loaded with my favorite brown and white bakers twine, and a pair of vintage metal herb snips so I never have to go rummaging through drawers for a pair of scissors.

Want your very own lifetime supply of bakery twine? Go here. Trust me. 3400 yards for around ten bucks. Maybe that is the find of the century! (I use the 4-ply brown and white.)

Of course, I like to keep what's on my coffee table to a minimum. Just a little something pretty that's also functional. It saves room for more important things...

...like hubby's feet!

What's on your coffee table?