Tiling a table top: a Salvation Army side table gets upcycled big time!

So I needed a new side table for the living room and went shopping. Store after store, including Home Goods, I might add, had nothing that I loved and the cheapest table I found that would meet my needs was over $100. No table bought that day.

A clothing trip with friends to the Salvation Army scored me a table for $5.99 and I was nuts over the style, if not the scratch-covered top. Fifteen minutes in Home Depot, four hours at home, and here is the equation for one very happy me:

If you are new to tiling, then a job like this is right up your alley - no saws, no noise, water-only clean-up and a grand total of $38.00, which includes the cost of the table - the major score! I used left-over simple mat tile adhesive from when I tiled my kitchen last year. It saves to save materials! It was $20 per box at that time and it took two sheets of the stuff for this table. Quick set is not expensive but I wanted to use what I had. The 12"x12" glass tile sheets were just $5.00 each at home Depot.

Here are steps of the project:

1. Sand and paint table. Paint is Rustoleum Satin Finish in Espresso. Paint top white so that translucent tiles will stay bright. I used about 1/3 of a little craft bottle of acrylic white paint and didn't get close to the edges so no taping! In this picture, the quick mat is already adhered to the white painted surface:

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2. This photo shows you the tools that I used, including a float, 5-in-One, and old spatula. All my tiling stuff is in one small plastic tub labeled, "Tiling Stuff" so that I can find it in the basement. I prefer to use this stainless steel dog bowl ($1.00 at a yard sale) to mix grout - the 5-in-One tool I use to mix can gouge plastic containers and when I wash this, I know it is truly clean. Tiling kits are a waste of money - they do not have quality products. Buy a float - you probably have everything else you'll need at home:

 

3. Follow the directions on the back of the grout box. There are pictures and it is very simple to do - just follow the directions! I used PolyBlend Non-sanded Grout (required un-sanded for glass titles due to their tiny spaces between tiles) in 'Nutmeg' as white would not have given me the look I wanted - the transulent, nearly clear tiles in my mosaic would have gone dark if I hadn't painted the top white. I used one fifth of the grout powder and have saved the rest for another project. The guide on the back of the grout told me exactly how much I needed. I used a postal scale to get 2 pounds of grout and added 9.6 ounces of water (yep, you'll need to use some basic math skills as not to waste 10 lbs. of grout, but just LOOK at the awesomeness that is my new table: 

 

And with two absolutely filthy, but totally stable yard sale chairs (marked $1.00 each, but offered $1.00 for both & they said yes!), lots of scrubbing and $8.00 of Krylon made-for-plastic paint later, here's the results:

You can do less with more! If you need ideas, ask crafty friends! Have an item that you would like to 'upcycle' but don't know where to start and have no craft people to ask? Send it to me and lets see what we can come up with!