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Transformed: Woodsy Accent Table

Jul 12, 2010

What kind of home decorating project requires the following supply list?

• 1 can satin black spray paint
• 1 can metallic bronze spray paint
• Painter's tape
• Several paper grocery bags
• 6 glass jars from recycling bin
• About a dozen small rocks
• Garden clippings, your choice
• More garden clippings, but flatter
• One large, heavy book
• Cast-iron Dutch oven with lid

The answer: this accent-table transformation! Let's just say I had plans, and they didn't quite go as expected, so a few extraneous items worked their way into the solution.

We've had this cheap little side table on our screened porch for several years. I bought it on clearance at Target for $10 because it had a slightly chipped edge. It's nothing special, but I liked its modern simplicity and it holds a couple of drinks and a lamp nicely. It started to look even shabbier from use, so I decided to give it a spiffy paint job.

Above is the scratched, faded, and chipped table before…

The plan was to paint it satin black with the insides of the base in bronze, and a bronze top over which I'd use ferns as a natural stencil and then paint it black. So it would be black with a nice bronzey fern design on top and crisp bronze inside edges. And as you can see, the final result is a big improvement.

The completed project, back in its home on the porch and topped with a $3 lamp from Goodwill. Metallic spray paint has actual metal particles in it. It will have a texture, whether you like it or not. The table surface would have been smoother if I hadn't needed a double coat of bronze.

Here's how it should have gone:

1. Paint top and insides of base bronze, let dry.
2. While paint dries, find perfect fern fronds in garden and clip for later use.
3. Mask off bronze parts with grocery bag for top and painter's tape inside the base. Paint satin black, let dry.
4. Remove masking from table top only. Arrange ferns on top and spray black over them. Let dry.
5. Remove all masking, place table on porch and make a mojito.

Here's how it actually went:

1. Paint top and insides of base bronze. Let dry.
2. Go for walk and get caught in rain, realize table is getting wet. Let dry.
3. While paint dries, search garden in vain for fern fronds that have not been grossly malformed by the May onslaught of tent caterpillars. Find a few to call good enough. Test out pattern on scrap grocery bags. Ferns too fuzzy-looking, find something else. 
    
4. Search garden and woods for pine branches, hemlock branches, beech leaves, columbine foliage… Test them all. Pine looks pretty cool after a quick spray on the paper bag. Go with it. Below: Ferns too fuzzy, columbine too clumpy, hemlock too heavy, pine pretty good.
   
   
   
   
5. Mask off bronze parts with grocery bag for top and painter's tape inside the base. Realize that paper bag is going to need to be secured at the edges. Tape will get in the way. Search recycling bin for glass jars to hold down edges. Of course, husband just dropped off recycling… only one jar. Use rocks instead. Pick through landscaping stones for heavy, flat rocks that also are not too pretty, since they're going to get painted black. Arrange around outside of paper-bag mask.
6. Paint satin black. Let dry.
7. Remove masking from table top only. Arrange pine clippings on top and spray black over them. Realize that it's going to take a lot of paint to cover the negative spaces; spray more.
8. Remove pine branches and see that the result is not good. Let dry.
9. Mask edges of table top. Repaint table top bronze to cover crummy pine design. Let dry.
10. Find something flatter to use as a stencil. Bugbane foliage looks cool, stays flat, but I still don't think it will work without some help. Place bugbane fronds in big recipe binder and top with huge cast-iron Dutch oven. Cover and simmer one hour.
11. Remove flattened fronds from binder and place on table. Pray for wind to die down. Spray satin black again. Let dry.
12. Remove all masking, place table on porch.
13. Make a mojito. Spill mojito on self. Let dry.

Well worth an extra 6 Bucks: paint trigger

I bought a spray-paint trigger, and even after a lot of spraying today, my fingers don't feel like they're going to snap off at the first knuckle. I'd recommend the well designed Rustoleum Comfort Grip. It cinches around the rim of the paint can and allows paint to spray through a wide opening. No cleaning between colors! I got mine at Lowe's for $6.28.

Do you have a fun project to share with other home dec enthusiasts? Send me before and after photos and I'll feature it here on Room for Inspiration! Just email me. —Diane

TAGS: before and after photos side table accent table end table transformation spray paint rustoleum satin black bronze metallic using natural elements plants as stencils

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