Upcycling is a great way to keep perfectly useable clothing and furniture out of landfills and save money along the way.
And while not all DIY projects are easy, if you choose your items well, you can double or triple the value of something for just a few bucks!
If you want a good example, just check out what a woman named Alicia did to a table she found on the side of the road. She shared her process on the HomeTalk website.
From trash to treasure
Here’s the table she found on the curb.
“As soon as I saw this sad poor looking table on the side of the road, I knew I just had to do something with it,” she said.
It doesn’t take an expert crafter to see the potential here. The wood is in pretty good shape, it’s nice and big, and the possibilities for colors are endless.
“This table was missing the two glass pieces and had deep markings throughout the frame,” she noted.
Easily fixed.
Can you imagine what you would do if you had this frame to work with?
Fixing the flaws
Alicia knew that before she did anything else, she’d have to address the scratches and gouges in the wood.
She stripped and sanded down the whole frame to get a fresh start, then painted over it using a layering technique to cover up the remaining imperfections.
Getting benched
Instead of using it as a table, Alicia decided to make it into a bench. And that means she’d need a cushion.
She used a typical foam cushion cut into three different pieces and fit them together to make a rectangle. Then she connected them together using a layer of fabric and adhesive.
The plywood on the bottom insured that the cushion wouldn’t dip through the openings.
Because the cushion was originally in 3 pieces, she decided to add another layer of thick upholstery fabric to the top in order to obscure any seams.
And we have to say, it looked pretty fantastic!
Making it last
Plenty of people embark on DIY projects and tend to stop as soon as something looks “good enough.” But if you want your item to last, you have to do the hard work of making sure it’s stable.
Alicia didn’t want the cushions to slide around, so the next step was bolting the cushion to the frame.
She attached four bolts to the bottom of the cushion and created 4 holes for them in the table. Doing it this way (instead of just nailing it in) would guarantee that it would be easier to take off if need be.
Finishing touches
Before the final hardware went in, Alicia painted her table to give it a “French country” look.
And she purposely didn’t paint inside the engravings on the wood so that they would stand out.
To keep the paint from wearing and chipping, she put a topcoat on.
And the end result was stunning.
Sure, it took some sweat equity, but remember that the table was entirely free!
We think she made the right decision in picking up the table.
Just check it out from another angle to see the detail she was able to bring out with her painting technique.
You know what they say – one person’s trash is another person’s treasure!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
