Hey there, thanks for stopping by. I just wanted to let you know I have a newer blog called Upcycle Design Lab and you can find my newest post there. I hope you enjoy this project and the tales of my furry critters.
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It's been awhile since we've had any news from the front. But it probably will not come as a surprise to you that the Dogzilla's have taken a decided lead over the Cat Monsters in the war-torn living room. Most recently they (the Dogzilla's) have chewed a hole in the arm of our couch. I might have been upset if I actually liked our couch but from the moment we put it in our living room I have wondered what possessed me to think it was a good purchase.
The color is completely wrong and I don't even like sitting in it. I know I should patch the hole or cover it somehow, but I feel spiteful toward it., as if somehow it deserved this treatment for being so ugly and uncomfortable. It is completely my fault that we chose it. So really I shouldn't be so mean. But still I can't help fantasizing about painting it a different color and pulling half of the stuffing out of it. But that is a project for another day.
So let's get on with today's topic of concern.
This table has three problems.
1) It sits in front of this very sunny window which has caused the paint to bubble on the top.
2) While I have always liked the black color, it shows every speck of dust and every piece of hair which in our house is a never ending concern.
3) Over the years it has had a lot of this done to it.
And even on occasion this has happened.
Which has resulted in it looking like this.
The good news, as with most of my projects, was I felt fairly confident I couldn't make it any worse.
Even so I waited till the hubby was gone for the weekend to start on the project just in case he didn't approve. :-)
My idea seemed simple enough. Just cut up a few tin can lids and nail them down to the top of the table. The only problem was I didn't like the color of the lids.
So I decided to burn them.
I do like burning things as you may already know.
It worked pretty well but I still wanted more color variation so I left some of them out in the sun and rain for a few days. I used the same process for the thumbtacks. Once the lids were nice and rusty I use some metal snips and a cardboard template to make squares out of the circles.
The concept worked perfectly in my head but I was still a little nervous to start pounding holes in the top of my table. So I decided to make a cardboard template to practice on.
It seemed to work. So all that was left to do was dive in and give it a try.
I still needed a little grapefruit vodka for courage but then I tapped in my first tack.
After a second grapefruit vodka I had made some good progress and decide it was time to go to bed before I regretted my decision to pound, what turned out to be, some 1400 tacks in to the top of my table.
Sometime after that the hubby came home, saw what I was doing and had a suggestion that made the process about a hundred times easier. I had been pounding a small nail to start the hole so I had to pull the nail out before tapping in the thumb tack.
Cordless drill to the rescue.
I really shouldn't have doubted the hubbies support.
It still took several more days and a couple more fires to complete the project but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. For the final step I added a thin coat of minwax polycrylic sealer to make it shiny.
If you missed any of the other dog vs cat episodes you can find them below.
The Trouble With Cats and The Making Of A Pickle Juice Chair
The Trouble With Dogs and Another Pickle Juice Repair
Episode 3 Dogs vs Cats - Easy Upcycled Door Latch
Happy Upcycling,
This project was featured on The Fill
