I love paper. There’s something about it, the texture, the quality, the colors. I just love it. I could spend hours in an art store that has a great selection of paper. I love making things with paper too. When I was a kid, I remember making jewelry with my mom out of paper and she still has some of those earings!
A few years agp, I had an old piece of accessory furniture that I didn’t like because it was unfinished. It’s a small four drawer piece that sits on top of my larger dresser. It’s made of wood and was pretty boring. One day while in a paper store, I had an idea. Why not buy some beautiful paper and refinish the drawers. I sat down and went to work. It was a detailed job but well worth the effort. Once it was complete and I placed it on top of my dresser, I loved it!
We have a table that we’ve been letting the boys use as a desk in our office. It’s a very plain wood table but solid and very functional. Over Mother’s Day weekend, Matt bought us a salt water fish tank. I’ll save that story for a different day, the one about how I wanted a fish bowl for the boys to explore having a pet with and came home to a 26 gallon salt water tank! But, that aside, we had originally placed the tank in the kitchen area but realized that it’s too hot in that space and needed to move it into the office. That sparked my fire to finally refinish the table before the tank was placed on it and the table would stay in whatever state it was in forever.
The process is pretty simple and gives such great results. Here’s our list of supplies for this particular table:
3 sheets of paper
Modge Podge
Acrylic Sealer
The paper we bought was an orange/rust color paper, similar to the color of the table and a great contrast to the blue walls in the room. The paper has a very cool pattern of intricate illustrations of trees and flowers. This job didn’t require cutting the paper because we didn’t cover the edges of the table, but if you choose to, just cut the paper to the size of each side.
It only took three steps to complete as well.
1. Buy all of the supplies
2. Paint the paper on with the Modge Podge
3. Coat with the acrylic sealer when dry
Here are a series of photo’s to show the process:
We measured the length of the paper, placing one full sheet to fall in the center of the table and then cut the pieces that wrapped around the side to fit. Marked where they met and started at one end.
Be sure to coat the seams well so that peeling doesn’t happen over time.
I’ve seen people use Modge Podge on just about anything and everything. You can cover an old pair of shoes, a book to make a journal, you name it you can paint it. So, dig out something that you thought was headed for the trash or your next garage sale and give it a new look! You’ll be surprised at how much you might fall in love again.
