Listening Room at 443 Update:
Things are moving along nicely in our new event space! The last day of my full-time job as an event manager at the zoo was Mother’s Day (a story unto itself), so I’ve had a lot more time and brain space to devote to our project lately. I’ve got most of the decor completed and right now I’m slogging through the ungodly number of permit applications required to get this place open. So far we need 8 separate permits, all with fees ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars for the liquor license. AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH.
Deep breaths…onward and upward.
Anyway, I found myself in need of some small tables for the room. I couldn’t find what I wanted a price I wanted to pay, so I decided to make my own.
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Most of the seating in our new event space is divided up into intimate conversational seating areas, like a living room. When you walk in there are 4 separate areas, 2 on each side of the center aisle.
But, I also wanted to include some small round tables. There was an odd little area between the white leather sofa in the photo above and the bar – not big enough for another conversational grouping, but I definitely didn’t want to waste the space. Even though food is not a major focus for the business, I thought they would come in handy for people who are eating.
I wanted 4 round tables that would seat 2 or 3 people and I wanted to keep the price at $100 or less for each one. I scoured the internet and my local stores for a few months. Unfortunately, everything I found in that price range was pretty flimsy. Aside from looking cheesy, I knew they wouldn’t stand up to regular wear and tear.
One day we were walking through the used restaurant equipment store looking for bar equipment and I spotted some metal table bases. I wouldn’t say they were attractive, but they were sturdy and pretty heavy and just $15 each. SOLD! I decided to pair them up with those unfinished round wooden table tops that Lowe’s sells and make my own damn tables.
My first step was to clean them up and scrape the loose paint off, then I spray painted them a coppery metallic color.
Lowe’s sells unfinished round wooden table tops in different sizes. I ended up choosing the 24″ version. You can find it HERE. I gave both sides a couple coats of some leftover stain and sanded it them lightly in between.
I attached the tops to the bases, and that’s pretty much how they sat…for several months.
When I picked the project back up this spring, I decided to stencil a mandala design on them.
Not original, I know – I stenciled the bar tables for the room HERE and back at the house I stenciled the table on my deck HERE and a wall hanging for my living room HERE.
I ordered a new stencil from StencilsLab on Etsy, you can find it HERE (afflil link).
I marked off the center of the table with chalk.
I didn’t want a high contrast design, so I used some DecoArt “Rich Espresso” metallic paint that I had leftover from the bar tables. You can find it HERE (affil link).
When I used them on the painted surface of the bar tables the “metallic” was barely noticeable, so I was pretty shocked at the result on my stained tables.
It was so…GLITTERY. I guess a test run wouldn’t have been a terrible idea?
Glitter is not really my thing, but I persevered.
I gave the tables a few coats of polyurethane to protect the design and let them cure for several days before I put anything on them.
The light affects the look of the stenciled design a lot…these were taken with light shining directly on the table, and it makes them really sparkle.
During the day it’s barely noticeable, which is more the effect I was going for.
So, sparkly tables weren’t really my plan, but overall I’m pretty happy with this project. I got 4 really sturdy tables for just $33 each plus the cost of the stencil and it was a super easy project. I’m going to put this one in the “Win” column.
