FREE cat tree and advice on coffee table

So last night on my way home from work at 1:30AM I passed one of the houses down the road from me and out by their garbage was a huge cat tree. I stopped, turned around, did another drive-by. I was going to just grab it while I was out already but I went home to tell the hubby about it first since I didn't wanna just suprise him with this one.
So at 2am I went back out on a mission to snatch this bad boy up. Its SUPER heavy, still in really good condition, there are only two spots on it that are scratched up in the upper corner..
I vacuumed it good, snipped off all the straggling pieces that were ripped up and its good as new!

Hubby said Lucy would never EVER go on it, she was hissing at it at first, but then I caught her sleeping in there so I grabbed the camera. As soon as I walked over to take her picture she got up and jumped down like she didn't want me to catch her in there actually enjoying it.
I can't wait for her to realize there are more levels to it! And I am really hoping to get another cat this month. A local shelter is having free adoptions for the month of June and i've been wanting another kitty and my birthday is in July... Perfect present? YES sir! :)




*I just saw her getting back inside the house as I typed this. Im so glad shes enjoying it.
Now I just need to find the perfect place for it.. Id like to sit it in front of a window.. maybe in the computer room... for now its in the hallway haha.




Now.. on to my "project" that im not sure if we'll do or not...
We.. well.. hubby.. bought this table when we moved into our first apartment even though I have a perfectly AWESOME coffee table that my dad made at my moms house. He just didn't care for it as his 'living room coffee table" he wanted something more modern. (that coffee table will be coming back once we move again though.)
So he went to Levin's and bought a couch/coffee table/end table and rug. I was very proud of him since he did it all on his own, however i wasnt too fond of the table and end table (they are matching, i just didnt get a pic of the end table). I do like it, but black just gets so dusty and shows EVERYthing so easily, and im sorry but I refuse to dust every single day. nope nope nope.
I saw some pictures of the wood top with painted bottom tables. I plan on doing our entry wooden table that way, doing a dark stain top with a lighter bottom (not white, hubby HATES white *insert eye roll here*)
I brought it up to him about doing the coffee table that way also. Much to my suprise he agreed with me and said thats an AWESOME idea. He checked the table to see what it was actually made from, we should be able to do the stained top with light bottom, worse case scenario we mess it all up and ill just get the coffee table from my moms to replace it for now, or we;ll repaint it if its not too badly damaged.
However. This table has those two glass insert pieces (i tried to take the best pictures that I could of them) I dont know if wood and those pieces would actually look GOOD together. We were thinking that it wouldnt. It looks good because its on a black table.
So question... Would it actually look decent with a dark wood top? If not, any suggestions on what I could maybe either replace them with? or some other way to redo the table. Remember, no white because he hates white for whatever reason.
The glass sits in a little carved out insert in the table so we could maybe make something to sit in there.. or maybe even cover the glass up with something somehow.. maybe fabric? i didnt even think of that until just now.. but then again we do sit drinks and stuff on there, I bet the fabric would get dirty and stain.


any suggestions/opinions are welcome for this project!!!