The Little Blue Table

 So, here's the finished product. Want to see what I did? Want to see how? I hope so. I'm finally at a place in my life, at 64, that I can try some of the ideas I have collected over the years and have so wanted to try.

This week, in addition to salt dough Valentine ornaments, and Valentine trees, I updated a round side table that I purchased at a garage sale over 18 years ago.  Here's how I did it.

The oak table is about 24" in diameter. I first wiped the table down with a damp cloth. Lightly scuffed the surface with very light sandpaper and wiped down again with the damp cloth to removed any residue. I let it dry off for about 10 minutes and then I painted  it with a coat of Behr paint in my favorite shade of blue. The paint also includes the primer so I saved myself a complete step.

While the paint was drying, I pulled some old used books from my craft library. I wanted one where the pages were more ivory than white. I decided to use just the Chapter  pages. Lucky for me, the chapters were short, but there were plenty of them; 32 to be exact. I ripped the pages out along the binding edge. I wanted the edges rough and torn. If you want straight edges just slide an Xacto knife along the straight edge of a ruler or rip out and trim.

Once the table was dry I began the process of trying out different style of laying out the pages. I finally settled on a round layout with the chapter headings displayed around the edge of the table and an overlap of pages covering the center. Once I determined the layout I removed the pages, donned my gloves (I use tons of disposable latex gloves)  and coated the entire top, edge and edge underside of the table with a coat of a mixture of one part white glue and one part water,  shaken well. (My answer to "Mod Podge"). I then began laying the pages, one at a time, coating with a layer of my glue mixture. Working with my hands I smoothed the flat surface of the page, along the edge of the table carefully wrapping the top of the page to the underside of the table. Once the page was smooth and coated to my liking, I moved on to the next page, overlapping the pages so no tabletop showed through. It sounds laborious now that I'm walking through it, but it really didn't take that long. I wanted a "used" look so on a couple of small areas I added some extra glue mixture to really wet the spot and then pulled across the section with my finger. It left a "worn" area with the blue tabletop showing through. I like it. Once all the pages were securely "fastened" to the table, I literally poured a couple tablespoons of my glue mixture in the center of the table and worked it all around the table top, edge and underside edge of the table. Then, the rough part for me, I waited. Waited for it to dry. I touch-tested it after about five hours but it was still tacky so I waited for about another two hours. Completely dry! It was already about 7:30 pm so I decided to wait until the next day for the next step.

Just remember, if you try this, the more mixture you add, the longer it takes to dry and if you're not careful, the paper will easily tear where you don't want it to. Just take it slow and easy.

I intended to simply add a protective coat of polyurethane the following morning. But, as I stood looking at the table the next morning with my cup of coffee securely in my hand I knew it needed something else. I didn't quite know what so I spent some time researching and looking at different ideas. At first I though about  a single large flower in the center. I thought maybe it needed some color. Maybe just black? Suddenly I found a picture of a bird and I knew. I had the perfect stencil. Imagine that. I rummaged through my stencils and found what I was looking for. I grabbed up my black acrylic paint, dauber, stencil and adhesive. I knew I wanted it in the center of the table but I laid out the stencil where I imagined the image just to be sure. I put the adhesive on the back of the stencil, laid the stencil in the center of the table and gently rubbed the stencil so the paint wouldn't bleed under. I poured a small amount of paint out on a paper bag that was laying close at hand. I daubed my dauber in the paint and daubed around on the paper bag to avoid a "heavy load" when I began the stencil. Once I had completely covered the entire open area of the stencil I let it set for a few minutes. Just a few. It doesn't take long for acrylic craft paints to dry. Once dry, I carefully lifted the stencil from the table and voila', my image of my bird and branch was perfect!

The next step was to add a protective coating. Now I've been painting everything in sight since I was old enough to hold a brush and roller. I've always figured paint is a cheap fix and if you don't like it you can always add another color to cover it up. I tell you all this so you can have a good laugh when I tell you what I did next.

We live in Upstate NY. A blizzard was predicted and we had high winds so I knew doing the top coat outside was not an option,  and  being me,. I wanted to see the end results. Yes, you guessed it, I decided to lacquer the top indoors. Not the smartest thing I have ever done. It's 5 degrees outside and I have all the fans in the house on high and the front door open! I'm surprised the lacquer didn't self-ignite. It took most of the day for the odor to subside. In the meantime, I can only imagine what our utility bill is going to look like. I won't do that again. I thought one coat would be sufficient but alas, most of the first coat was absorbed into the paper even though it had many previous layers of my glue solution. It looks great, but I want sufficient lacquer coats so the use of coaster are not required on the table. So, when the sun shines again, and it will! And the winter winds and snow and ice rain are gone from this beautiful season called Winter, I will take the table outside and apply the extra coats needed. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my newly refurbished table each and every day.

Until next time, explore YOUR creative side. jan