Upcycling our Coffee Tables

 

Our 3 coffee tables had seen better times, especially the smallest one, that's the one my husband uses ;)  It get's daily coffee stains, scratched from laptops and other devices. Anyway, after 8 years I thought I could spiff them up a bit. 

I  started with sanding the tables down, it took a while, but I wanted to start with a some what smooth surface. 

The table is made from MDF,  so I primed it with a water based acrylic primer and then painted it with  a satin acrylic paint in the color Light Grey (RAL 7005) to match our wall-to-wall-floor-to-ceiling TV-cabinet. It's painted in the RAL colors 7005 (Mouse Grey) and 7035 (Light Grey) So I decided I would use one of those colors as the base of the tables and then Tangle on them. 

I also spray painted the legs with a bottle of satin Acrylic spray in the color Pigeon Blue color (Ral 5014) so they looked fresh too. 

Before I started to tangle on the tables, I tested some markers on a painted wood board, to make sure the varnish  would not make the markers streak and find out what marker would work the easiest on a painted surface. 

I  tried Posca (top left), Marabu Deco (top right) and Edding markers (bottom)

I decided to go with Edding Glass, Metal, Plastic markers in  0.8mm and 1-2mm. For the very fine lines I sacrificed some micron markers 0.2 and 0.5 (the tips don't hold up great on the rough painted surface) for the shading I used Derwent Inktense Charcoal Grey that I blended out with a stump and very little water. Since the surface is not absorbent at all, to much water made everything pool. For the white  highlights I used White Posca pens. 

It took me a while to get the courage to put marker to table. Correcting wouldn't be easy, although  I could always repaint and start over. Unlike Tangles on paper, I did prep a little bit, I roughly sketched the 3 designs that I wanted, although I didn't decide in advance what tangles I would use. 

I started with the medium table first. I tangled mostly organic tangles like: Aquafleur, Flormoeba, Dragonair, Zinger, Pflandi,... on both sides and connected the two with a tangle called Zander

I sprayed a layer of varnish from a can for the first layer of protection and to prevent the inks to move when brushing the next layers of varnish. 

Then I started on the second  table,  the smallest  one. 

For  this table I wanted a kind of ribbons, so I used the tangles: Footlites, Annee, Coil, Flormoeba, Intwine, Shattuck, Shneck, Sonnenband and some random ones. 

Lastly I started on the biggest table. I did sketch 2 circles with a compass, because I wanted at least a little guidance to make them. All other shapes are freehanded. On the left  side I started with more graphic tangles (Reticulated, Paradox, ...) in lines and once through the circle I transferred to more organic tangles (Intwine,  Annee, Shattuck, Potterbee, Prasima, Intwine, Henna Drum, Cat-Kin, Angle Fish,...)

With all three tables done, I gave them another coat of varnish with a spray can,  and added  4 coats of Satin Acrylic Varnish and let them dry for a couple of days before take them downstairs ready to  use.