This past spring I bought this beauty at a community garage sale for $20.00. I had no ideas what it was, but I thought it was cool the way that the front slid out and turned in to a table.
A little research, and checking out the drawers for a label, taught me all about the mid century Expand-O-Matic.
It was designed at a time when we Ameicans were moving off the farms and into the city. Space was tight in apartments so furniture had to do double or triple duty. Here is a a 1960’s advertisement after they tried to update the name by calling in EXPANDWAY. I like the 1940’s/ 1950’s version- Expand-O-Matic.
I find it ironic that I bought it because I am moving to the country not the city. My plan is for the desk/table to move into the back guest room. I plan on us making a Murphy bed for the room along with the desk. It will be able to convert between office space and bedroom as needed.
The room looks like this right now: 
As you see above, the room needs love.
The room is going to be kiwi ( a little richer than lime but bright green), cream and teal. The top and legs were stained with a Minwax gel stain called special walnut. I am so excited to have my own space inside he house to paint, sew or just piddle as my mom calls it. It will be a fun, bright, creative space with my awesome painted chair which will have cream legs when we move in, this super cool desk/ worktable, and a kiwi colored cabinet with a Murphy bed in it. I am thinking I will be painting a rug to go in the space in case of disasters that occur when I craft.
Here is the inspiration room:
Of course my room will have a little more of a rustic vibe.
The hardwood runners that allow the table to expand to 6 feet are all cleaned, waxed, and now move easily between open and closed. We still need to fabricate the leaves, but the body is painted (Behr Real Teal) the drawers are a mis-tint sample I picked up for fifty cents. The mis-tint is darker than my go to “sea salt” cream, but still an off white color. I tried to stain the drawers but they were too far gone to save. I was able to save the top and legs even though ther is an ink stain on the top. (I wonder what happened there?)
Ink stain
The drawers above were sanded until I almost sanded through the veneer but they still were not going to look right.
I tried to polish up the hardware but in the end, I had to spray paint them with metallic spray paint. (Rustoelium Soft Iron).
Wouldn’t this piece be great in a mini house?
I found these awesome curtain panels for $5.99 each too! The color is a perfect match to the teal color on the Expand-O-Matic. There are three windows in the office so getting the curtains for under $40.00 is amazing.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
I love to hear from you.
Blessings,
Karen
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