How to Transform an Old Coffee Table Into a Piece of Functional Art

Susan Goode
by Susan Goode
6 Materials
$15
4 Hours
Medium

I love transforming vintage pieces and creating new colourful life into them and this little table found its way into my home from an on line auction site for just £9

Vintage table

I have the idea to make a square feature and begin by covering the table surface with plain white paper to allow a key base for tiles to stick to and also it helps me with a blank fresh base to design on to.i begin using vitreous 1cm square tiles in black for the border edge and stick with pva.

Vitreous glass tiles create the borders

I use green and yellow colour palette to contrast with the black. I glue the tiles in once I’ve measured the window frames distances to make them balance .

Create window style frame

I love the boldness and colourful contrast and keep selecting tiles that are pre cut and easy to lay. The pva glue dries in about 1 hr .

Adding more colours

I continue adding tiles and work out how I want the centre of each square. You can choose any number of combinations to make a unique piece.

Nearly finished

The last few tiles go on and I adjust a few that are wonky. The next stage is to leave to dry over night so its firmly stuck in place before the grouting process.

Ready to grout

I use ready mix black and a piece of plastic card to apply working it into all the gaps. And wiping the excess off as I go around edges

Add grout to tiles and work in gaps

Continue to work grout into the grooves and then wipe clean with cloth or Wet wipes.

Grout the tiles

A good clean up of the tiles thoroughly remove any excess grout covering the tiles.

Cleaning the excess grout

The amazing design is revealed and beautiful coffee table is ready to be useful and admired again.

Mosaic upcycled table
Mosaic upcycled coffee table
Mosaic coffee table
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Frequently asked questions
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  3 questions
  • Lora Lora on Feb 15, 2020

    what did you use to attach the white paper to table?

  • Calyta Calyta on Mar 09, 2020

    Wow! This is exactly what I’ve been wanting to do for some time. Only difference, I used to experiment with stained glass, had some leftover glass squares and needed something to do with them. I think I’ll break them into randomly shaped pieces, lay them out and proceed as you did with placement as grout. Thank for the suggestion.

  • Judy Passey Judy Passey on Mar 19, 2020

    Do you have ideas for broken ceramic pieces of old pot for this idea

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