MeeMaw's Table

So I have this table. It's small, measuring roughly 13 by 23 inches on the top. It stands about 3 feet high or so. I inherited it from my great-grandmother after she passed away in 1996 and it has been with me for my whole married life. It's served several functions and had several different types of Contact paper on top. I replaced the Contact paper that was there when I got it with a black and white checkered design (leftovers from what I put on the counter around the sink in my dorm room - that was super lovely).

Several years later, after recovering an old scratched-up computer desk with plain off-white Contact paper (does anyone see a theme here?), I used what was left over to recover the top of the little table. The table legs/bottom part was plain wood, but it looked to be several thin pieces of wood glued together, and since it was so old, the adhesive was disintegrating. So I did what any genius like me would do... I painted over it with a thick white gloss. It was still separating at the bottom, but I stuck it off in a corner and put a plant on top and it was fine for about five years (the plant is a different story).


However, I have since moved it to its current location next to an armchair and it has taken its fair share of abuse. The kids would climb up on top and jump off, one child would lay sideways in the chair and put her feet on the table and push it back and forth against the wall, and it had been colored on. With non-washable crayons. Lovely!


I knew I wanted to do something to try and repair the table, but didn't know what until I saw this tutorial over at Me and My Girl. I have an abundance of cute scrapbook papers, so this would work great. So I ripped off the Contact paper that now sported a rough sketch of an alien-looking "person" done in bright purple crayon, removed the leftover adhesive and sanded the whole top, including the layer of green paint under it all. I was ready to decorate, but first I had to fix the legs and scrub off the crayon marks on the sides. I scrubbed as best as I could and sanded, then I got out the super adhesive and filled in between the wood pieces and clamped overnight. OF COURSE my camera batteries died about that time, so I have no photos of the process. Then there was the problem of what to do with the parts of the legs where thin pieces of wood had been completely broken off. My answer was wood filler. I went to work with the wood filler and sort of rebuilt the bottom parts of the legs, as well as filled in all the gaps and scratches. I sanded it down smooth and painted the entire table with several coats of bright white. I removed the metal piece around the top and painted underneath it, too, mostly to protect the wood in case someone spilled a drink on top, so that it wouldn't seep into the unpainted wood and ruin my whole new pretty table. Maybe this visual will help explain what I mean:

So once the white coats were dry, I added a few coats of Mod Podge to the legs and underside of the table. I pretty much followed the steps in the tutorial for the paper on the top, except I cut mine into two-inch squares and used a bright yellow acrylic to paint a border around the top of the table, several inches wide. The papers overlapped the yellow paint.

I wanted to paint the metal piece thing around the top, too, so I sanded it and cleaned it up, propped up the corners with canning jar lids, then added a layer of white paint. Once that dried, I sponged on the bright yellow and let dry. Then I added a layer of Mod Podge, but instead of painting it on smoothly, I smooshed it on with the sponge brush, so once it dried, it has a sort of stippling effect and a nice texture. You can see it in this photo that I took before it dried (the white spots are where the Mod Podge is still wet):

And here's the finished product:

I think I might get a clear sealer of some sort, maybe a glossy polycrylic, to cover it all. The Mod Podge is a bit sticky. But I like it a lot, even though it doesn't match anything in the house. I don't really care, though, because I made it myself.

The kids better not color on it.