New Life for an Old Table
I had this 2 tiered table hanging around. The bottom was wood but I didn’t like the Formica top and wondered how I was going to paint it and not have the paint possibly get scrapped or knicked. Then, through Hometalk, I received a product I had seen on another project called Retique It. It claimed to cover anything, like the Formica top on this table, and make it paintable. I was really excited to try it.
Here is the table before I started to transform it.
I just loved the look of these legs. Reminded me of Mid-Century style. Is that the right style?
Then I painted the legs a gray color. It really brought out the dimensions of the legs.
I always go and do a once over where I have painted. Because . . . there are usually drips somewhere.
I started painting the top with the Retique it.
Here is what I used.
Then I took the tool and made it look like a wood grain.
Ok, I liked it, but I didn’t like the gray bottom with the brown top. You will see what I did in a second.
I tried to make a design that mimicked the design in the legs. So I went to my Cricut Design Space program and began playing with shapes and sizes.
I used a gray scrapbooking paper that matched the paint and cut out the pieces to play around with the design.
Then, I took stencil vinyl and used my Cricut to cut out the design. Have you noticed the table top looks different ? What I did was added another very light coat of Retique It. I liked the look and you can still see a faint woodgrain even though it doesn’t show very well in this picture.
I stenciled on the paint using the same gray that I used on the bottom.
And Voila, here is the result.
It turned out basically the way I envisioned it.
In the end, my whole goal was to try to the Retique It product. I really did like it and it adhered like it said it would. I can’t wait to try it on another project.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?