Upcycle an Old Table Top Into Unique Christmas Wall Art

4 Materials
$10
1 Hour
Easy

Whilst working on my a making my salvaged wood Christmas tree in my garden. I spotted a broken old round table in the corner.


Instead of taking this table to the dump, I decided to rescue it and give it some love and turn it into the biggest Christmas decoration for my home. It can also be used as a cardholder. I like to go big with Christmas decorations you should see what I made out of my Amazon boxes.

For my transformation, the first thing I did was to sand down the tabletop with an orbital sander (like this one here). Lifes too short to sand big surface areas like this by hand.

The sanding got rid of all the dirt and grime and made the top all smooth.

To decorate the table top I didn't use paint but decided to decoupage with napkins.


I'm a big fan of the prints of Marimekko and I had a collection of there designs in paper napkins. I decided to use all the ones that were red and pink in colour as this would make the table top more festive.

The Marimekko napkins I had were 3ply. To decoupage, you only need the top printed ply. Therefore I separated out the napkins until I had just the top ply.

I applied decoupage glue to my table top and then placed the delicate napkin on top.


I then got a ball of screwed up cling film and used this to press down on the napkin. The cling film doesn't stick to the napkins so reduces the chance of it taring.

As I finished each section I covered the napkins with another layer of decoupage glue which acted as a varnish.


I carried on using a different napkin pattern for each strip of wood until the whole table was covered.

Then using a sanding block, I sanded off any excess napkins that were overhanging the edges.

I then hung the table on the wall in my dining room as I felt it went really well with my very popular upcycled Curios cupboard (click here to see it). However, I'm tempted to hang it above my mantle.

The Christmas table top can also be used a Christmas card holder and when I'm fed up with it on the wall I can just add some hairpin legs and have it as a table again.


I think it would make a lovely Christmas coffee table as well as a wall hanging.

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Claire at Pillarboxblue
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  • N. G. Londonderry N. G. Londonderry on Dec 05, 2018

    How would you attatch cards....thumbtacks would leave holes.?

  • Taf Taf on Dec 05, 2018

    Stunning ! Love it. And just think of the possibilities..... I'd love to do this with a spring motif and have in my backyard as art. Cute Pumpkin for Halloween or fall... Now where do we find all the table tops? LOL. Seriously, great idea.

  • Kathy Kathy on Dec 05, 2018

    Could you do this on a metal table?

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