End Table Makeover

This year, one of the home projects is to paint the kitchen cabinets and trim throughout the house. Needless to say, I have not had a large chunk of time yet to start, but it will happen; I am determined!

Instead, smaller projects have taken priority over the larger one(s) at hand. And frankly that's okay with me too. The latest project was painting the end table in our guest room. It had been staring at me for a while now, but it took me a while to decide what to do with it.

One day, I stumbled upon these cute compass knobs from Anthropologie.

And they inspired me.

You see, the guest bedroom is filled with maps and travel things, including pillows with the latitude and longitude coordinates of our hometown and current home. This compass image just seemed to fit, and my husband even liked it.

Side notes here:
1. Anthropologie seriously has the best hardware options.
2. I am waiting as long as I can to buy these knobs for the closet doors, but hoping they go on clearance first.

So I decided to paint a compass image on the end table. I had remembered seeing one image that a sweet friend had pinned on Pinterest and went on a search to find it and re-pin it.

So on a cold and snowy spring evening, I started by painting two layers of MMS milk paint in Linen on the table. As the paint dried it started to chip away. I probably should have used a bonding agent, but I do not mind the super crackly look.

Before

After

As I ran the spackle knife across, it flaked even more and left a complete mess on the living room floor. I probably should have transported it to a hard surface first, but thankfully the paint vacuumed up quite nicely.

Then, I loaded the table up and brought it to work. With help from a co-worker, we set up a projector and projected the compass image onto the tabletop. I traced it, and then painted it using a sample of MMS milk paint in typewriter. It continued to chip a bit more as it dried.

To finish, I applied two layers of clear antiquing wax for protection and returned it to the guest room.

Overall, this was a easy, fun project. Just like the dumpster-turned-treasure desk and the armoire, it was nice to add a touch to something we already owned, creating an almost entirely new piece without spending a lot on it.