Superdon's Trash-to-Treasure Table

As I went to toss my garbage at the dumpster, I noticed a small table sitting beside the opening. I had promised myself that I wouldn't follow in my parents' footsteps of finding something at the trash sites and taking it home to redo and refinish (memories of buffet tables, bed frames and planters immediately came to mind). That promise to myself was broken. I picked up the table and carried it home, determined to use my craft imagination on this blank canvas.

First, I spray-painted the table green, but ran out of spray paint. The table looked worse. Then, it hit me - I'd use my newly found picture frame decorating skills to cover the table with fabric from my stash and buttons. I selected a plain piece of pale blue fabric for the top and used decoupage to adhere the fabric to the wood. I painted the entire table with two coats of "primary blue" acrylic paint. Some places on the table even took a third coat of paint.

I've been collecting buttons for years and this seemed like a great project to deplete my supply. I used my trusty hot-glue gun and Arlene's craft glue to adhere the buttons to the table. On both thin sides, I applied buttons in a ROYGBIV pattern, keeping colors together but not worrying about shapes or sizes.

On the end caps, I covered one side with an owl sitting on a tree branch. The brown tree branch mixes in with the black buttons that were the midnight sky. Don't be afraid to do some laying of buttons - I felt like it added more depth to this project. On the other end cap, I put together a mural of a blue sky with a sun beaming down on three red flowers growing in the grass. I like that when you look at the end caps, you see the outline of a mural, but have to stare to appreciate the individual buttons.

This project too several weeks to complete between the labor, waiting for paint and decoupage to dry and creative inspiration to strike. I'm extremely excited with the end results and have even brought it into the office for a few weeks to make sure that I enjoy it each day. Our photography staff took the final photos for me. It's been one of my favorite craft projects since joining the Fabric.com team last year.