Sep 16

Sep 16 The Coffee Table

Started: June 2010

Completed: February 2012

This coffee table is almost 20 years old. My parents first bought it when we moved to the United States years ago. After almost 2 decades of very little design changes in their house, they decided to renovate and were about to kick this coffee table to the curb. Literally. I decided I could give the horribly country looking coffee table a new look. In the process I gave myself something “productive” to do and rediscovered the satisfaction that comes from paying attention to creative detail. My new hobby was born.

First things first. Oval?! What an inconvenient shape lacking contemporary design. And handles?? We won’t even go there. Something had to be done to eliminate these elements and the whole thing had to be sanded down to the bare wood. Oh goodie. About 2 minutes into sanding I learned that I loath the task. But it had to be done. Once the sanding and carpentry was complete, I had this beautiful blank slate to work with:

Enter indecision. There were so many design possibilities! After weeks of consideration and a coat of primer I decided to go for a French theme with a twist. The bottom would be an antique white with a medium gray crackle for a nice aged look. The underside would be a bright blue (a secret personal touch you could say). And the top? Ha. Who knew at this point. Here it is with a coat of primer ready to be taped off in preparation for the blue undercoating and the actual undercoat stage:

Then came the gray color that would eventually show through as the crackles:

Next a layer of crackle glaze (found at your local hardware store) was applied before a coat of antique white paint for the outer layer:

As you can see the lip needed tending to as well. Unfortunately I didn’t think about that until after I had finished the rest of the table bottom, so I had to perform all three steps again to make it identical to the rest of the bottom portion. This took a lot of focus and detailed brushing.

Once dry I turned it all over to tackle the mystery of the top. What to do with it to give it that finished look? After about a year of forgetting about the project on and off, and too many varying ideas to count, I thought I might never finish. It might always be 70% complete.

Evidence of the tornado of ideas that were considered here:

Thankfully I didn’t go ahead with any of them, right? Sometimes waiting for that idea that just feels right, the one that just clicks and you KNOW it instantly is so worth it. Well, over the 2011 holidays I decided I was going to get my butt in gear and finally finish the darn project. And it just so happened that at that time I had that spark of an idea as well.

Now sometime shortly after I completed the bottom and turned the table over I had decided to “prime” the top with that same gray paint from earlier and this, it turns out, was exactly the inspiration I needed a year later---Keep it gray. Make it rustic!

So one morning in my pajamas I started to lightly sand (following the grain of the wood) against the gray paint. Low and behold, the table started to take shape with a bit of personality.

But it still didn’t feel complete. It wasn’t that French-themed table just yet.

I added a damask design using a stencil and a very dark brown sample of paint to the bottom right corner. This was partly for design and partly to cover up some imperfections in the wood that I didn’t like.

The last touch was to add a quote I really liked inspired by the company I hoped to someday be gathered around this coffee table.

“Keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”

Love the idea of this and it is something I try to live by. But it sounds so much prettier in French and since this was a French-themed table, why not make it pretty and French...

“Entourez-vous de ceux dont la présence vous rend heureux et inspire le meilleur en vous.”

So I researched how to apply a printed font to a wood surface. First I had to paint a plain piece of paper with Elmer’s Glue and let it dry.

Next I set that in the printer tray and printed the phrase as I wanted onto the glued side of the paper. (I had to make sure to change the printer settings to print the mirrored version or else it would look backwards once I transferred it to the wood.) Next I applied a thin layer of Mod Podge to the area where I wanted the text to go.

After cutting out the phrase as close to the letters as possible, I applied it type-down to the Mod Podge treated area and left it to dry for about 2 hours.

**(The back has type on it here because I recycled a piece of paper.)**

Then it was time to rub off the paper leaving only the text transferred neatly onto the wood. (This was done extremely carefully with a wet paper towel so as not to take off the transferred text along with the paper.)

It didn’t come out as clean as I liked so I ended up going over the letters with an extra fine Sharpie before applying 3 coats of polyurethane sealant. At last, I had completed my first furniture renovation project!

BEFORE & AFTER: