It’s time for another Thrift Store Upcycle Challenge!! I’ve paired up with an amazing group of talented ladies to bring you a monthly thrift store challenge. Each month we will create a new home decor piece from an item(s) we’ve found at a thrift store, yard sale, resale shop etc. There is no budget or specific theme so we are free to let our creativity run wild!
Meet the Hosts
Amanda | The Kolb Corner Chelc | Inside the Fox Den Erlene | My Pinterventures
Kim | Made in a Day Sara | Twelve on Main Debra | Shoppe No. 5
Shirley | Intelligent Domestications Marie | DIY Adulation Lindsay | Crazy Organized
Michelle | Our Crafty Mom Julie | Live From Julie’s House Colleen | Life on Kaydeross Creek
Maureen | Red Cottage Chronicles Pili | Sweet Things Sherry | Savvy Apron
Ann | Duct Tape and Denim Dru | Polka Dot Poplars
Megan | C’mon Get Crafty Jennifer | Hydrangea Hippo
You can also follow our board on Pinterest for more upcycled decor inspiration!
I’ve been working on sprucing up my deck and pergola area this summer, and one of the items on my shopping list was a small table to go between the wicker loveseat and chair. There wasn’t much room, and I didn’t want to spend much money – so I was thrilled to find a sad little table at a thrift store for $3.99. It was in pretty rough shape, but I knew I could make a new mosaic table top and it would work perfectly out there.
It’s too bad it was falling apart – the earth tone “mosaic” pattern would have worked just fine had it been in better condition. Under closer inspection, I realized that it was actually scraps of paper covered with thin plexiglass, or something similar. And half of it had come off.
My original idea was to scrape everything off and add new tile to the existing top. But, the table top wasn’t in great shape and I thought it would be more useful if I made it slightly bigger. So, I picked up a new wooden top at Lowe’s for about $7.
I didn’t think it would be exposed to water once I was done, but just to be safe I gave it a coat of leftover deck stain, then screwed the legs onto the new top.
Since I was planning to tile the top, I wanted to add a strip of metal around the edge to give it a raised lip. I couldn’t find what I was looking for locally and since I didn’t have time to order it online, I picked up a small roll of flashing for about $5, cut it to size and spray painted it.
I had adhesive and grout in my basement and I found some very cool tiles on clearance for about $6:
I cut them in half with tile nippers and arranged them in a random-ish pattern on the tile adhesive.
HOT DIY TIP:
I am by no means an expert on tile, but the one thing I’ve learned after doing a few mosaic projects is that you don’t need as much adhesive as you think. You don’t want the adhesive oozing up between the tile because you want to have room for the grout to get in between everything. If you have a few spots where it’s too heavy, use a wooden skewer to scrape some out.
After letting it dry overnight, I added the grout using a float.
Wipe off the excess grout with a large sponge, but wait a couple of hours to get the final haze off.
For some reason, the light brown grout ended up looking very pinky-beige, which I do not love. This would look a ton better with a dark brown grout, but I wanted to use up what I had on hand.
Done!
This ended up being a bit more of a project than I anticipated….I probably should have just given the new wooden top a decorative paint finish and called it a day, you know?
This is the little corner of my deck/pergola I was looking to fill. I’ve added a few more sconces to the folding wooden screen I wrote about HERE . The wicker loveseat and chair are a set I got on Craigslist for $60. They were pretty beat up, but a few coats of spray paint worked wonders.
It’s important to have a place to set your wine. 😉
Be sure to check out all of the other creative upcycle projects my fellow bloggers have come up with!
I’m linking my mosaic table up at some terrific blog parties – you can find the complete list of places I party HERE.
