Tuesday, January 22, 2013

My "Trash To Treasure" Table How-To

I made this delightful little table a few days ago and thought I would show it to everyone here. I was going to do a step by step tutorial for this, but after considering it, it doesnt really need a lot of explaining to be duplicated. Any crafty person could figure out how to make this easily I'm sure :)
So, here is a list of supplies that I used for this:



  • Razor-blade or other sharp craft knife
  • Scrap wood-the piece I used here is pre-cut and can be bought at Michaels craft store. The size of it is 3"x 2"
  • Sandpaper-any grit you are comfortable with
  • Foam board-I used the piece of wood as a template for the size of foam to cut but I cut it a tiny bit shorter on the sides so it would fit between the legs.
  • Bamboo Spatulas/Forks-I got these from my local Dollar Tree store. Theres a picture of them in the photo of the table. If you cant find these particular ones, any other kind of decorative toothpick or scraps of skinny wood pieces can be used as table legs.
  • Loctite gel super glue-This is my favorite kind of glue to work with, if you have one you like better, use that one. I dont believe regular school glue or wood glue would be good for this as a note.                          
Items used to make this table


The first thing I did was cut just the "fork" part of the (4) bamboo sticks off with my razor blade. Then I sanded the cut edge until it looked nice and straight and even. Now, at this point, you can cut off some of the other side or cut off more on the fork side. Its all up to how tall you want your table. Cutting off the fork part and nothing else, my table measured 2 1/2" tall.
Next was gluing the legs to the table. I glued them as close to the edge as possible but you can measure and move all of the legs closer to the center, making the top come out further than the legs for a nice look. After letting the glue dry for about an hour, I grabbed my already cut piece of foam board and situated it between all the legs, as pictured above. I checked for how it fit, made a few adjustments to the foam board and then put the glue on the wood legs, not the foam board. When you cut foam board, it exposes the foam and some glues tend to melt stryofoam when they touch. This type of glue doesnt change the foam at all as long as you use small amounts and apply it to the wooden part FIRST.
After all of this I left the whole thing set for another few hours, then checked the level on the table. Its hard to eyeball things sometimes, to make them straight, so you may want to use a level when making your own furniture like this.
This is what it looks like with a few decorative items on it, to show dimensions better.


As of today, I have painted this table teal and am about to add some roses and ivy type vines to it. It will be on the "Shabby Chic" side of themes.  After its all finished I will post an update to this entry! If you have any questions or need any help, just comment! Ill get back to you soon :)

Good luck everyone, hope this helps and inspires you to make more "trash to treasure" items!

=[ -Leia- ]=

                                            *************UPDATE!!!**************
Here is a photo of the table after phase one of painting :) I added some roses and my mother crocheted a delightful little doily for this table for me. I will be added even more roses and accessories soon!


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