Living with Art: A Fabulous Guest Post about A Fabulous Table Makeover

By Guest Artist Audrey Boudreault, one of our Living with Art contest winners from 2014!

My neighbor was throwing away a fabulous piece of furniture. Old? Oh yes. In need of some love? Definitely. So when I came back from my evening walk and found it on the sidewalk, I figured it would make a more than decent drawing table with lots of cool storage.

After having it sit sadly as it was in my living room, I decided that it was about time I got to it. Here is the poor thing before, crumbling under my mess (why is it so difficult for artists to keep everything in order?). Oh and my attention seeking cat couldn’t help but to lay there for the shot.

So basically for this project I used some leftover latex indoors paint, acrylics, tissue paper, masking tape, Mod Podge, varnish, a brand new handle to replace the cheap plastic one, lace, brushes, foam brushes and various pen/pencils. And attention seeking kitty did not help at all.

So, I cleaned up my piece of furniture and attacked it with paint. It is very old and textured, and it probably could’ve used some more love (i.e. sanding and scouring) before decorating, but I do love that weathered look. And I am not too good with tools nor do I have the patience. Or will to fill my place with dust. So I started off by applying two layers of white acrylic on the whole surface of the table.

I already knew I wanted my surface to be striped and I also wanted to paint one of my heartless ladies. So I drew my lady on a sheet of paper and transferred her on the white paint before I applied masking tape for the stripes.

Two layers of red later, I removed the masking tape. Due to maybe being too eager and not waiting long enough for the acrylics to dry properly,the masking tape removed bits of white paint. It was fortunate though because I ended up really happy with the way it looked.

Then the fun part began: painting and making the table pretty! So I painted my heartless lady, but she ended up too small for the surface and looking lonely. At this point it was the middle of the night and I was too tired to actually think, so I dropped black paint on the table and tried to make it look good. And it worked. I think.

So, after the main part was done, I moved on to the remaining parts. I decided I wanted the legs of the table to be striped, so I proceeded as earlier with the white acrylic and masking tape followed by red paint. I decided I wanted an asymmetric funky look and started the stripes lower on one leg. Bad decision, the whole thing now looks crooked… Then I painted most of the compartments and one drawer gold to finally used Mod Podge to collage cool polka dot tissue paper and lace on the rest.

When everything was dried and looking good, I applied some varnish, screwed the handles back on the drawers… and voila! A real cool piece that stands out and makes me want to sit down and create 🙂