Ok. Time to bring a little more levity to this blog. I’m about to roll my sleeves up and get my DIY on. That’s the plan for this weekend anyhow.
I figured if I share my plan with you I might have a little extra motivation to actually do it.
So, we have this coffee table… We’ve had it ever since my sweet mother-in-law snagged it on the side of the road for us when we were newlyweds. I loved the rustic wood tone, but didn’t fancy myself a glass-topped coffee table kind of gal. However, we did consider ourselves house poor, having just put all our (Micah’s) savings into a down payment – so I wasn’t about to be picky.
I figured we’d replace it down the road but we never did get around to it. It kind of grew on me. As long as I wiped it down periodically the glass top added a nice airy vibe to our small living room.
These days, however, I feel like it’s giving off less of an airy vibe and more of a smudgy, icky vibe.
It has basically become Helena’s play table throughout the day. We do not have a playroom and since her bedroom is on the second floor, she plays in the living room while I cook, clean and sew (ha!) on the main floor ;). So of course her hand-prints get all over it and rings from her sippy cup accrue and by mid day it needs to be wiped down again. Not my idea of a good time.
I keep her toys in baskets under the table so she can easily pull them out and play on the floor or table. Genius, I know. However, I don’t like how you can see all the toys through the top of the table. (I’m still in denial that a kid is taking over our house – so I try to hide it as much as possible)
So, instinct says – time for a new coffee table. But… that’s not really in the budget right now. So I’ve come up with a plan of sorts to make this a fun play table for Helena, but also a nice/unique coffee table for us adults to use as well.
I’m one of those people that wants to put chalkboard paint on everything. (I wanted to chalk up our old refrigerator back in the day – but Micah quickly nixed that) So naturally, chalk board paint came to mind as a solution for our table. How fun would it be to have a table that is actually OK for your kids to draw on – or to keep score when you are playing Rummy 500 with your husband (or when your sister Tabitha comes to visit and wants to play canasta all night long)!
All kidding aside, I really do want our home to be a creative place – not pretty and stuffy. I want to raise Helena with creative experiences and opportunities like this. For now she will probably just eat the chalk… but eventually I think she will enjoy a little self expression 🙂
My plan is to remove the glass and give it a few coats of that velvety, black chalk board paint. I’ll leave the wood alone for now – bite mark and all. (Adds a little rustic charm, right?)
Hopefully I will be back on Monday with a finished table…or an update at least. This could totally be a flop, I know. I’ve looked around the internets and have seen a lot of coffee tables adorned with chalkboard paint – none of them glass though 
So we shall see… If you have any tips on painting glass, using chalkboard paint, or feel the need to stop me before I ruin my table – please do tell!
The Simple Palette 