I’ve got another Listening Room project to share with you today – my Stenciled Bar Tables. I’ve written about our new business venture HERE and HERE. As I mentioned in those posts, we inherited a lot of random furniture from the previous tenant of the room, and the stash included three of these counter height tables:
They really aren’t ideal for what we’re doing because they are about twice as deep as they need to be. In a room where space is at a premium, I hate to give up any extra real estate. Also, the overhang isn’t really as much as it should be. As you can see from the photo, it’s just a few inches, so it’s not like you can comfortably pull up a chair. But – FREE is a really good price AND they have wheels on them.
This post contains affiliate links to make shopping for specific items easier. Affiliate income helps pay the fees to keep this site up and running. The links I share are for services I use and love and for vendors I have done business with and feel comfortable recommending. Purchasing through an affiliate link will not cost anything extra. Not all links I share are affiliate links.
Most of our seating at the Listening Room is upholstered living room furniture arranged into conversational groups. But, I thought the tables would work just fine in the back section of the room with some bar stools around them.
The tops were in pretty rough shape:
They were kind of whitewashed, but really scratched up and not in good shape. My first step was to give them a coat of the ivory paint we used on the walls.
Then I started playing around with Mandala stencils.
I thought it looked a little harsh, so I took some leftover brown paint, thinned it out with water and brushed it over the design, followed by a quick swipe with a dry rag.
Much better…I like that it looks aged.
I did a different design on each table. The first one used a bunch of small stencils I picked up locally, but for the other two, I used the large mandala stencil I bought last year for my DIY Mandala Wall Hanging and my Mandala Stencil Pallet Table projects.
You can find the stencil HERE (afil link) and it’s available in a bunch of different sizes.
If I had to do this again, I would skip the first design with the smaller stencils because it’s my least favorite. I think the large mandala stencil makes more of a statement. I used an assortment of metallic earth tone acrylic paints for the design.
I gave the tables a few coats of polyurethane and let them cure for several days. I also added a couple hooks to each side just under the tabletop.
I hate it when bars don’t have hooks for purses and jackets, don’t you?
The last table ended up being my favorite:
BTW, I got a smoking deal on those metal barstools from Target! I was looking around online and found them on clearance over the Labor Day weekend last year. The stools were already marked way down, plus they had 15% off all furniture and I got free shipping. I think they ended up being about $22 each.
They were parked in my dining room in boxes for longer than I care to admit.
But eventually, we dragged them over to the room and got them all put together.
These Mandala Stenciled Bar Tables aren’t a forever solution, but FREE works for me and they make sense for our guests who are eating.
Next up on my project list: an easy DIY bohemian wall hanging.
