"lazy" Susan

I think Susan got a bad rap.
Why call the girl "lazy" when really she was brilliant?
Must have been a man that named her genius creation.

ANYWAY...
Our old table had a built in Susan (I, for one, will cease to call her lazy) in the center.  It was a round table, a real cutie that functioned well for our little family of four. The problem was that there are often more people eating around our table than just us four.  So this summer I refinished a large table and we have loved it.
I've missed Sue, though.
Plus, the basis for most of my inspiration/imitation - Pottery Barn - had a few in their fall catalog that got me thinking.  Nothing was for sale, of course. I often seem to fall in love with the staging elements.
This was the picture that had me drooling over my rotating girlfriend.

So I've had my eyes open for a Susan at the thrift store for a few weeks now.
Recently, I found one of the Ikea variety.  I paid $3 for it - it was unblemished and in like new condition, and they go for $8 at Ikea, so I figured it was a good deal.

This shiny, scratch free blond oak Swedish styled Susan was not exactly what I had in mind, though.

I started out by sanding her down.
I wanted to rough up the surface so that paint would stick, but even more importantly, I wanted to break down the edges.  I wanted something that resembled a rough bevel, so it had a hand-carved look to it.
Because I'm sure that somewhere, elderly master-craftsman types sit around, whittling lazy Susan's...

Once the sanding was to my liking I brushed on a quick coat of creamy Behr paint.

When that was dry I sprayed her down with some flat black Rustoleum.

After she was thoroughly dry I went nuts with the sand paper.  I started with 120 grit (my favorite) and ended with a sanding block that probably started as 220, but has been used so much that it has very little "sand" left to it.  It gave everything a nice polish, kind of worked the scratches into the piece.

I love how it turned out. I'm really hoping to find another so I can give it the same treatment - then I'll have one for each end of my Thanksgiving table!