I’m definitely a “throw a party at home” kind of girl.

Not only do I host almost every holiday, birthday, celebration, and event, but sometimes I create random reasons to have people over.

I’m a born hostess.

And one of my favorite summer party events is roasting s’mores.

There’s just something about having everyone gathered around the fire while sharing ooey gooey marshmallows.

Instant happiness.

But what I don’t like about roasting marshmallows and making s’mores?

Building the fire, smoke going in all different directions, and extreme heat in the already hot summer evening.

There’s got to be a better way.

Cue the lightbulb flash over the head…

This old table!

My father built it for my twin brothers when they were toddlers for their Thomas the Train set.

The tracks were all nailed down and the buildings were all in place and at one point in time, it had grass and ponds and bricks painted on it.

Having them all nailed down and at hand’s level was perfect for two little three year olds who seemed to “accidentally” destroy the track set-up, then cry when their trains crashed.

My dad was a genius.

But those days are long gone, and after being passed on to my son, who has now also grown out of it, it sat in various garages and storage buildings.

Until now.

Until that lightbulb flash.

I brought it out onto the deck and gave the outer sides a quick cleaning and a few coats of outdoor spray paint.

After the paint dried, we drilled some drainage holes into the bottom of the table.

We made quite a few of them because we didn’t want rain water to rot out the inside, even though the wood was already pretreated to be outdoors.

Then my big strong hubster poured in three bags of little pebbles and we spread them out inside the table.

We wedged in six terra cotta pots right down the middle in the straightest line I could possibly make.

We filled the pots about a third of the way full with more pebbles just to give them some extra weight and staying power.

The idea behind the pebbles didn’t really have anything to do with the s’mores aspect.

I actually wasn’t even planning on the s’mores part at all at the time.

I really just wanted the pebbles inside so we could wedge our drinks into them to keep them from getting knocked over by my wild little tornado and his wild tornado friends doing cannonball competitions at the pool.

But thanks to Pinterest, the roasting pots became the centerpiece of a very large empty table.

So for my table’s first party debut, I followed along with the Pinterest crowd and lined the pots with foil.

Then I filled them with charcoal and lit them up.

Perfect!

No giant smoke puff in the eyes.

No extreme heat (except this smoldering Tennessee weather).

No crowds of people huddled up on one side.

And no back-breaking maneuvers to hold the sticks at just the right angle.

So thanks Dad, for building this train table.

And thanks Little Brothers, for loving Thomas the Train.

And thanks Brain, for finding a way to repurpose their old junk.

Total cost: $14.

Y.E.S.

Now I get it, you may not have a super awesome train table to repurpose.

But your local thrift store probably has a really ugly old coffee table.

Just throw a 1×4 frame edge around it and you’ll be good to go.

Or you can be handy like my dad and build one with wood and screws and sweat and love.

Just don’t tell your kiddos it’s really a train table.

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