apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

BEFORE

Tools:

I wanted to change my bedroom furniture to a chocolate brown wood. I couldn't afford to buy all new pieces and didn't want to throw out a perfectly good piece of furniture so I repurposed my old light wood IKEA side table with some retexturing.

- Modge Podge (but elmer's glue would work)
- Sponge Brushes
- Paper
- could be brown paper bags or anything with a cool design ( i went with old brown construction paper i found and some nice japanese printed paper)
- cheap IKEA side table that needed updating
- new hardware knobs

Steps:

While planning my design I decided i wanted to echo the flowers in the Japanese print so i cut out petals in both papers and decided how to layout the paper on the surface of the piece. (Tip: the paper will darken as the glue dries so using brown paper bags applied in a way that is wrinkly vs. flat can even it make it look like a leather effect!)

Next I placed the paper piece by piece in the arrangement I wanted. Using the sponge brush dipped in modge-podge i gave a light coat on the actual side table and then another layer or 2 on top of the paper. (Tip: its better to do it in small sections at a time because otherwise the glue will bubble and its hard to keep it flat)

I did one more coat over everything just to make it even and ensure all layers of paper were adhered properly. Once it was dry to touch i poked a hole left by previous hardware to attach the new knobs.

Voila a new side table!

Sources:

Even in person its hard to tell that the side table is not dark wood...i sometimes can't believe that its just regular old brown construction paper! Although I had a piece of furniture i did not want to throw out this can be done to anything that could use a bit of updating.

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