FINDING THE ARTIST IN ME

Before

Lately I have just had a burst of desire to be artistic and to create fun crafty/artsy stuff!  Maybe it's the excitement of my new apartment--a whole space that is all mine--and the decorating possibilities that are waiting to be pursued.  My first project was an end table for my living room.  That's the table on the right.  Pretty plain.  My mom and I found it at a flea market.  It's potential was initially masked by an ugly lamp emerging from the top.  It was bad, folks.  My mom was checking it out anyway, as I had ignored it.  She suddenly found that the lamp could be removed.  It was then I saw what this table could be.  You see, I have one end table in my living room that's another funky, flea market find, and I wanted another to compliment the style.  As we searched and couldn't find something to match it's funkiness, I came to the conclusion I was going to have to funkify something myself.  THUS the new table emerged and possibilities were imagined.    

First, the table had to be sanded.  (no picture available), which was "fun."  Thankfully my mom had a can of liquid sander to speed up the process (at least it did on our second try...instructions are good; find them, read them).  Then I needed to figure out the perfect color.  After playing around with some blue, white, and green paint my mom happened to have in the garage I happily settled on a nice turquoisey blue.  It actually fits my living color-scheme perfectly!    

Ready to paint!

Then it was time to start painting!  I can't tell you how excited I was!  Weird?  Ya, a little.  This was my first furniture project, so I couldn't help my excitement.  So paint I did.  I just a normal 'ol paint brush, like you'd paint a room with.  I started with a super thin coat (as shown in the next couple pictures below) adding on as I went, as I wanted to go with the worn, antique look.  There really was no messing up with this project, which was nice.  Who doesn't like a fool-proof project?!  Weirdos.  That's who.          

Thanks, Mom, for these pictures!  :-)

Focus and determination....right

I left the middle portion unpainted because I really wanted my dad to try and saw off the four little, miscellaneous poles that I found to be pointless and ill-fitting to my funktified vision.  As the saw is my dad's, and I have no sawing experience, I had to wait for him to come back home from his golf excursion.  Waiting....waiting....    

I have no patience.  So, I said screw it and painted the middle anyway.  He came home as I was doing it.  Doh!  We hoped the poles didn't actually provide any stability to the table, so it wouldn't be a big deal to take them off.  AND.....

I was right!  YES!!  Poles removed.  Stability maintained.  However, holes were left.  No biggie.  Nothing that a little wood filler couldn't fix.  Thank you, Super Smart Guy from Lowe's!

The sad, little, demolished poles.

Wood filler is crazy stuff!  Use carefully!  AKA don't get it on your hands, and let it dry there.  Then you'll have wood-filler hands.  No one wants wood-filler hands.  Except weirdos.  Don't be a weirdo.

Becoming a lovely, blue, funkadelic piece of art.

After waiting about an hour for the wood filler to do its thang, I applied another coat of paint.  See how the sad, old flea market table has turned into a lovely, blue, funkadelic piece of art!  After it dried, time to sand away!

I will say it was difficult for me to take a piece of sandpaper to my lovely paint job, but it had to be done in order for my original vision to come to fruition.  So sand I did.  I used a low-grade paper (120 to be specific), and focused on the edges.  I didn't have to do much to the legs, as I kept the paint on them pretty thin.  I also gave the top a few swipes to match my other table.

I am SO HAPPY with the finished product!  It fits in my living room perfectly!  Enjoy the pictures of my brand-new old, refurbished, art project funkterrific end table! 

 

Fits in nice and cozy!  I'm still deciding what to put on this wall.

Here's my other end table in the living room before I started moving things around, jazzing up the place...and pre-couch!  Not the best picture quality, but you can tell it's pretty dang cool.  And, yes, it's green. :-)