The last time we shared something worse for wear, we discussed how our welded steel dining table has fared the past year. Overall, not too bad. Just a few scratches, but nothing a can or two of white spray paint can’t fix. Unfortunately, not every piece of furniture can be fixed as easily. Take our living room end tables for example. They used to look alright, considering they were $15 Target clearance tables with laminate tops.
When I bought the tables two years ago, I bought them mostly for the price and the steel bases. The laminate tops, not so much.
Laminate is super cheap and peels off easily. Specifically, Vincent peels it off easily. And, he puts stickers on everything. Chairs, cabinets, tables, you name it, it has a sticker on it.
We’ll have to find the time to make new tops, whether wood, marble, or granite. I’d like to paint the legs to complete the new look, too.
What piece of furniture have you purchased, only for it to fall apart? Something from Ikea? Something from a high-end furniture store?
ourhumbleabodeblog.com 
We bought a couple Ikea dressers. Four months later, I couldn’t open the bottom drawer very far. A little investigation revealed that the flimsy bottom of the drawer had popped out of it’s groove and warped so it wouldn’t open. Not impressed, but it is Ikea… heirloom furniture was not in my expectations. And, in a way, I’m kind of glad… it gives me an excuse to buy another, more permanent, dresser!
My Ikea Malm has to be slid ever so carefully when I rearrange the room every two weeks (or so it seems) or else it kind of sort of falls apart.
One of our first purchases after we were married was a sealy sectional from Costco. We were confident it was a good investment, however, it started breaking down within 6 months. We have learned to buy higher end, barely used sofas on craigslist.
I totally had an Ikea book shelf collapse on me. I put it out on the street and some one else took it.
That stinks about your tables! I bought some coffee tables/end tables from Pottery Barn years ago because they were SUPER on sale that just got knicked and dinged and finger printed SOOOo easy! I think we finally figured out how to care for them (never use Pledge or Furniture Polish) and once that factory waxy finish wore off they have been SO much better. But those first few months I just thought to myself, “What have I done?!?! Why did I go for the P-Barn?!?! As a result, I’d NEVER buy a P-Barn dining table!! Never, ever, ever!!!
This is random but I have a friend with a living room who’s layout (and chair rail molding) looks EXACTLY like yours… same type of wood for the closet door and everything. They’ve decorated it differently of course… but wow… clicked over from YHL comments and was reading through and was caught off guard feeling like I have been in your living room before… haha!
Ha, that’s too funny, Rachel. It is really odd that they are that similar. Thanks for sharing!
Amanda