Old Trunk Tables Get New Life

$75.00
3 Days
Easy
Well, we did it again! It was our luck that we were garage selling Wednesday, and we came past this set of old trunk tables. My husband looks at me and says, just walk away – they are not worth $50.00. I could tell the owner just wanted to get rid of them, so I offered her $25 for the full set and to my surprise she took it! It was quite a show watching us cram these three old trunk tables in our Chevy Malibu – the room in this trunk is no lie! Once in, we dragged them home spiders and all, unloaded and I got to work.
Needs:
-Three old trunk tables ($25 for whole set garage sale)
-Burlap (Joann’s on sale for $1.99 a yard – 3 yards total)
-Mod Podge Glue
-Paint (I used black and dark cream because I already had this left over)
-Rust-Oleum hammered bronze spray paint ($4.97 Lowe’s – used for hardware)
-2 Resin kits (Lowe’s)
-120 grit sand paper
-Black and Decker Mouse Sander
First, I opened the lid and vacuumed out the old trunk tables. Then, I washed them out with Lysol cleaner to remove the sticky that lived there. I let them sit and dry for a couple hours, as I eyed the pieces and imagined what they would become. It came to me…and off to Joann’s Fabrics I went. Because they were a trunk style, I wanted a burlap that told a story of where these old trunks may have been. I eyed the perfect burlap of stamps from travel and fell in love!
Back at home, I took my goods out of the bag and got started. I Mod Podged the burlap to the top of the old trunk table. I trimmed the burlap leaving a little overlap because glue does shrink it a little bit. I then Mod Podged the top of the burlap, and left to dry.
While the tops were drying, I moved on to paint. I used a rich deep wheat color paint that pulled out the burlap color and enriched the black colors. I placed on two coats of quick dry Bear Paint which I had purchased for a previous project from Home Depot. As the sides dried, I painted the all the trim in an Rust-Oleum oil based black and left to dry over night. The colors the next day were so rich and vibrant the tables looked brand new. I sprayed the hardware with Rust-Oleum hammered bronze spray paint, and left to cure over night with the trunks.
The following day, I mixed the first resin kit. I slowly poured the resin to cover the burlap (it’s normal that the burlap will poke through the first coat). I let the resin set up over night, the sanded with a 120 grit paper the following day. They will look scratchy, but you want to get all the pieces of the burlap smooth, try not to break the resin bond. I cleaned with a damp cloth, let dry and repeated the resin process (not letting it drip off the top).
This sat over night again.
The last day, I placed the hardware back onto the old trunk tables, and placed into the downstairs family room. My husband asked where we got the new tables. He was shocked to find out they were the $25 find he begged me to walk away from :-) For about a full $75.00 investment, I saved over $300 for a little elbow grease.
And did I mention the extra storage when you lift the top? You can’t beat extra storage ;-) - Always go with your gut – some old piece, can be new again with a little TLC from the right person. Here’s to you all finding your next great treasure!
Finished Trunk Coffee Table.
Old Broken coffee Table.
Old end table before redone
Finished End Table
Cutting burlap to seal to top with Mod Podge and Epoxy Resin (Envirotex Lite product) on top.
Finished Trunk Table
Painted piece in tab and black.
Storage!!!! :-) A beautiful thing in a cozy space.
Finished End Tables drying.
Linda Crandall
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 6 comments
  • Bonny Wikle Bonny Wikle on Dec 30, 2013
    You did a fantastic job! I love to see ladies like yourself that are not afraid to tackle jobs such as this! So proud of you!
    • Linda Crandall Linda Crandall on Dec 30, 2013
      @Bonny Wikle Thank you Bonny. Re doing furniture and taking old things and turning them into something else or cleaning them up, is a passion, and I love sharing that with everyone out there. :-)
  • Patty Patty on Jan 01, 2014
    They are beautiful, now if I could just find some old ones at a garage sale.
    • Linda Crandall Linda Crandall on Jan 02, 2014
      @patty Also check your thrift stores. I stopped by there to drop our's to make a donation of clothing, and there sat another full set of these babies! You never know where you will find them :-)
Next