Faux Barn Wood Coffee Table - Amature Level
$25
2 Hours
Easy
I decided to upcycle a plain coffee table for an area fundraiser.... I never expected these results.
From drab to fab in 1 afternoon.
Even though this looks like pallet wood, it is simply a plain 4' coffee table. I used brown shoe polish to create the wood grain look.
I spray painted the table with white spray pain which gave it that dusky unfinished look, next I used a black permanent marker to create the board lines and used Kiwi brand shoe polish and an old rag to create the wood grain.
I used wide sweeps back and forth to really give it a more natural grain. Also, I did each "board" separately to make them seem individual. Be careful not to over work the polish, but if you do, just reapply and leave some heavy spots.
I bought wooden letters from the dollar store and stained them dark, I didn't like how they looked so I gave them a little spray of the white paint which made them dusky. Next I coated them in my trusty shoe polish.
Warning your hands will get dirty so I recommend gloves if you don't want brown fingernails.
Blemishes worked in my favor, I just added a little extra polish and rubbed it in a circle to create a wood knot.
For the blemish that I couldn't cover up with shoe polish, I added a couple of lines with my permanent marker and another swirl of the polish. That gave it a lot of depth and ended up becoming my favorite spot on the whole piece. Thanks for viewing.
The hole in the center is for a clock fixture (which I am not assembling 'til it is auction time).
Comments
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2 of 42 comments
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I have always loved the looks of very large clocks (had one on my living room wall that was 30" across), so I'm really taken with this. You've done an amazing job here.
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Beautiful, looks like it was an original mid century modern now with an updated twist. Good work!
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