Furniture Archives - The Salty Knitter

Remember that icky melamine folding table I had from the same place my TV Stand turned Tea Table came from? Well I had a lot of fun making and floral end table from that 80’s melamine. Or at least I did after I recovered from a couple of big mess-ups!

I started out by scrubbing the table down and then I spray-painted it in Rustoleum’s ‘Aqua’. Once everything seemed dry enough I moved to the next step. I knew after recently seeing some Merimekko textiles and wall-coverings that I wanted to have big billowy flowers, and that I wanted to use strong colors.

I added the centers and painted in some little white flowers in the bare spots. It looked awesome. The next morning I took my floral end table outside to spray sealer on it and watch completely horrified as the Aqua spray paint started to lift and crackle. Seriously it was like watching a stone chip in a windshield turn into a crack across the whole thing.

Honestly even though I knew it wasn’t a good finish, I was going to leave it as it was. So then I went to add the second coat of sealer, and grabbed the wrong can.

Still I soldiered on and turned it into an ‘airbrushed’ edge, and really I was going to just use it as it was. Right up until a bird came along and shit right in the middle of the table. That’s when I grabbed the palm sander and sanded everything off, giving the melamine a good scuff in the process.

Better the second time around?

Once the base color was dry, I started painting my big billowy flowers again. I’ve doodled flowers like anybody else, but I found it surprisingly hard to make really big flowers. For each one I painted an outline first.

Then I used a larger brush to fill them in. The paint I used really showed the brush strokes. Rather than stress about it, I incorporated the texture.

After the first layer was fully dry, I added centers to the flowers.

I sort of stippled them for the texture it added to the paint.

I added some white daisies to lighten up the dark blue flowers.

I left it to dry some more.

I stippled the centers of these too, just with a smaller brush. Once it was completely dry, I took it outside to seal it. I sent a quick prayer to the spray paint gods before starting and then gave it a good coat. Everything was fine this time. I think the first event was just from forgetting to scuff up the melamine before I painted it.

So there it is, an end table for my deck made from an old melamine folding table. I think I’m going to have to decide which style direction the deck furnishings are going in soon though. Because the Tea Table and the End Table aren’t exactly coordinating or even complimentary styles or colors.

So what do you think – are the daisies overkill?

If you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to share it with your friends! For more just like it follow me on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter or sign up for regular updates by email.

If you have ever thought about starting a garden or craft blog of your own see how easy it is >>here<<.

Save

My current deck furniture situation is okay when it’s just me sitting out there, but there is a shortage of surfaces capable of holding a drink. A situation that gets awkward quickly when I sit out there with my friends. So Saturday I made a trip to Picker’s Pig Pen to see if I could find anything that would work. Well wait until you see how great this TV stand looks after I got done with it.

I found this great old rusty TV cart on Saturday and a melamine TV Tray. My oldest boy gave them his ‘that’s disgusting’ lip curl.

This is what I started with, an old TV cart that was probably from the 70’s. I always have a hard time picking the right decade, because we kept stuff forever in my family. It had the walnut colored fake wood grain mactac, and the shelves were masonite imitating walnut. But as rusty as it was, it was solid, more solid than any thing I’ve bought new lately.

So I grabbed a bucket of hot water and Mr. Clean and scoured away as much of the rust as I could. Then I spray-painted the metal – fake wood-grain stickers and all – with antique gold spray paint. I am pretty hit and miss when it comes to my spray painting skills, but this time I nailed it. Honestly I kept staring at that frame all night.

But I still had to do something about the ‘walnut’ shelves. One was too warped to use, but I spray-painted the other one in a color to match my plastic Adirondack chairs – Rustoleum ‘Aqua’.

It did not look good with the gold-colored frame at all!

I had seen an article where someone decoupaged a table top and it looked awesome. So I dug through my fabric stash, and tried Mod Podge for the first time in my life. Because it was my first time using it, there are no step by step pictures for this one. I had a hard time just keeping up with how quickly the Mod Podge was drying in the heat, but the link above will take you to some pretty clear instructions. I sprayed it with a Matte finish sealer once it was dry so we will see how well it holds up to the weather.

Check out my new Tea Table!

There’s plenty of room for a tray of tea things now, even with my plants on there!

A bottom shelf for tucking away anything I’ve piled beside my chair when company comes.

I really need to decide if I’m going to keep the mirror frame on the deck. It looked fabulous when it still had chippy white paint on it, but all the chippy paint has chipped away to nothing.

You can still see the fake wood grain if you look closely.

I just love this happy bright apple-green fabric.

The melamine TV tray from the 90’s in the first picture is coming up this week, and trust me it was a DIY that started out so flipping awesome until everything, and I mean everything including random bird poop, started to go wrong.

If you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to share it with your friends! For more just like it follow me on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter or sign up for regular updates by email.

If you have ever thought about starting a garden or craft blog of your own see how easy it is >>here<<.

Save