Coastal Cottage Style Table

This was a fun makeover of a vintage thrifted piece creating a coastal cottage style table. Here’s what I did…

First, I found THIS gorgeous heavy single sheet paper . It is titled ‘Merveilles de la mer’, which I understand is French for ‘wonders of the sea’. It is so beautiful, and relatively inexpensive for a large, poster size, really beautiful quality paper.

It could be used as art work, hanging in a frame of sorts on it’s own. I had a different plan though.

My plan was to cut around each piece and decoupage them on the table top.

The thrifted table though nice and solid, had a grungy dirty coat of flat white paint on it.

After a good cleaning I painted a coat of THIS primer on it. It will stick to just about anything, and it will prevent the oak tanins from bleeding through the paint.

Next, I painted the top cream and the legs in sea green color. I selected a color for the top that really, really closely matched the background color of the sea life paper. That way when I cut out the sea life I could leave the little numbers next to each one that I liked and the paper background wouldn’t be so noticeable.

In fact, the paper edges in the background color are nearly invisible with the layers of Mod Podge on it.

So once the paint was totally dry, like a day later, and after I made a final decision with the placement of the sea life illustrations, I painted a layer of THIS satin Mod Podge on the table top, section by section, adding a paper cut out on the wet Mod Podge, and then painting a layer of Mod Podge over the paper cut out.

Here’s a tip I’ve learned from Mark Montano: Lightly mist the graphic, front and back, with water before setting it on the Mod Podge to prevent air bubbles. I have a misting spray bottle like THIS and use it so much for crafting and painting!

The skinny black outline on the table top and side of the table apron add just a little detail. I’m not very good at painting a thin line free hand, so I cheated and used THIS. Made it so simple!

As you can see, even with a paint marker, my lines aren’t perfect, but I just mark it up to a ‘hand painted’ look and don’t fret about it.

Once the first layer of Mod Podge was totally dry, another layer completely covering the whole table top was added, covering over the now dry black line as well. I did do at least 3 or 4 layers of Mod Podge, to be sure the top is durable to just wipe up with a damp cloth.

That’s it!

With an addition of some wicker chairs, (another thrifted find) it’s a fun coastal cottage style table set.

Now this once ugly table is a happy little spot to drop packages, do a puzzle or grab lunch at. And I didn’t have to be an artist to get a unique detailed look.

Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate you reading along.

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