Alternative Cocktail Tables

I have a love/hate relationship with cocktail tables---and I live in New Orleans where they are definitely cocktail, not coffee tables.   I mean, the right cocktail table with the right accessories can MAKE a room.  And how do you live in a living room without them there to hold books, drinks, and (I'm sorry, Mother) feet.  Unfortunately, they are one of the hardest items to find.  I mean it's almost impossible to find one the exact right length, width, height, style, etc.  And for some reason, most of the ones I love are, almost without exception, extremely expensive.  There fore, for a long time, I lived without one, pulling in small  stools when needed:

 

The furniture arrangement is the same, but it's a whole different room now.

 What made it harder for me to find the right table was that the furnishing was such a mix.  The cocktail had to blend with these mid century tables, cream slipcovers,  and peeling paint.

 

And the other table in the room, is a butler's tray that I made from a drawer and the legs from a folding tray table (I guess I do like non- traditional tables):

 

 

 Luckily, on a trip home to the farm, I found this shipping crate, once used to ship tools, in my father's workshop. 

 All I did was clean it up (not too much) and add casters.  I didn't put a finish on it, because I like the rough look, and in my house, being used,  beaten up, and patinated is gonna happen anyway...the finish might as well start out distressed.

A corner of the cocktail trunk, but mainly an excuse to post a picture of Cleopatra.

 I also took my salvaging ways outside to make a cocktail table from a door I found on the street:

 And a buffet from a discarded packing crate: