End Table Transformation- Look What I Made

Thanks to Knot Sew Crafty for passing along this thrifty tutorial on how she turned an old end table into a real piece of art!! If you would like to be a featured guest post on Look What I Made , watch for our weekly post each Tuesday called A Thrifty online craft fair, link up and you may be selected for our weekly feature post.

One night I was watching a movie upstairs in the media room with my hubby and I realized that I didn’t have anywhere to put my popcorn and drink if I was sitting on the end, then I realized I needed at least a replica side table. The search was on! First, I found some great scrapbook paper to Mod Podge onto a piece of furniture. I have never refinished furniture before so I didn’t want to spend much money on the furniture. I stopped by every thrift store that I drove by for over a month until I finally found the perfect “canvas” for my art. I drove by a thrift store that I didn’t know was even there, made a U-turn and ran in. I went to the back of the store and immediately found this little gem for $3.99. YUP… three dollars and ninety-nine cents!!! I couldn’t believe it! I snatched it up and took it up to the check out. Sure it was a cheap piece of furniture with a little damage, but it was perfect! The only thing really wrong with it was a small warped spot on the top. No big deal.

The first thing I did was sand all the stain off of the legs. The rest of the end table was a wood veneer, so all I could do to it was rough it up so that it would hold the primer a little better.

Next, I spray painted Kilz primer on the entire end table. My media room has deep reddish maroon curtains in it, so I was lucky enough to find a clearance paint sample at Home Depot for less than a dollar that matched my curtains perfectly. After the Kilz was dry, I painted a coat of the maroon paint on.

I wanted a distressed vintage look, so banged it up with washers strung on a small rope, a hammer and nail and the sharp edge of a screw driver. I read on the internet that if you use wax on the base coat of your paint and then paint over it, it is much easier to remove the paint from the top for distressing. I tried a tea light candle, but it just crumbled. I found a white crayon in Sarah’s crayon stash that worked great. I colored on the maroon paint in a few spots. Then I spray painted the table a dark brown. (I had to do this in the garage at this point because it was cold and rainy outside…. I did the “hold your breath, point, spray and run back inside method”).

Once the brown spray paint was dry, I took a fine grit sand paper and steel wool to distress the paint. To remove the paint that I used the crayon on, I just used the edge of a screw driver and gently scraped the paint all over. In those spots, the paint simply chipped off.

Next, I cut out the scrapbook paper to fit the table and Mod-Podged it on (LOVE that stuff!)

I read (or rather, watched) some helpful hints on the tutorials on Mod Podge Rocks blog. If you are new to Mod Podge, I would highly recommend watching.

And finally, it is dry.

And then, put together.

It’s the perfect size for the spot at the end. I LOVE it!

Isn’t this scrapbook paper great?? I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and knew it would be perfect for our media room. After a year, we still don’t have any art on the walls up there. There is more scrapbook paper in the pack, so I plan on Mod Podging it to canvas to hang on the wall.

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