Once in a while I will see some unwanted something and immediately know precisely how I want to upcycle it.
Most of the time I just know there is an idea lurking and it will be great…eventually. Lol. But THIS time I knew *snap* instantly.
Drab to D&D
When I saw this small 70s, poorly painted, drab brown table, I envisioned it as an awesome D&D table with some 1” tiles on top for figures.
Maybe a Dungeon Master could use it, adding his/her screen on top. Or maybe it could work as a small figure table for a short quest or beginner game.
The trick is that often I have ideas which involve elements I don’t actually know how to make. Lol. For example, I have never dealt with tile before.
However, in the era of Google and YouTube I decided it was figure-outable, so I was excited to get started.
That was…well…two years ago. Lol.
I measured the table, found some inexpensive tile at Lowe’s that was sold by the sheet (I did NOT want to grout dozens of little 1″ tiles), but then just wasn’t sure how I was going to adhere the tile to the table. Because you know what? I reaaallly hate grout. It’s messy and inefficient and just annoys me. Lol. It also is not easy to clean…and D&D night generally involves many snacks.
So what happened? I just took a break until I felt like attacking that table again. A break that turned into nearly two years thanks to life, a little girl, too much ‘stuff’ in the house to deal with, etc.
I’ve also learned that forcing myself to finish something creative is a really bad idea. It pretty much turns into either something completely BLAH or becomes a world of trouble with problems popping up everywhere. So I’ve learned the hard way to just wait until creativity strikes and ride that wave.
Well, creativity struck a few weeks ago when I just wanted to paint something AND it was a beautiful spring day. So, I thought about that table. Ah-hah! It struck so suddenly I even forgot to take a ‘before’ photo! lol. So the above ‘before’ photo is simply one I took a few years ago when I first got the table and was looking at some tile options.
Paint
Once again, I used Debi’s DIY Paint because you don’t have to sand anything, it dries really fast, and I had some on hand.
The symbol for the main creative company of Dungeons & Dragons is red, so I went with Black Velvet to set off the red I figured I would use somehow, as well as more easily hide any dirty, snacky fingerprints.
It only took two coats, and with this paint, as usual, it was dry enough for the second coat by the time I was done with the first. I only used about half of the smallest (‘sample’) jar too (it’s an 8oz jar). I LOVE how much coverage you can get out of this paint! (And no, I am NOT affiliated with the company…lol.)
Above is what it looked like after two coats. Notice it looks matte here because it is a clay-based paint. It will dry lighter and rougher-looking than in the jar. BUT, that is what the top coat is for (Debi’s DIY has both waxes or a water-based finish). You can see the difference below, after I added the top coat. However, I wanted to wait until I painted the D&D touches before I put on the top coat, so it would protect those details as well.
Which brought me to the decision of what details I wanted to add and where. I am not an avid D&D-er myself. I just know many people who are. Thus I really did not know what to put on the table, exactly.
Enter Google.
D&D Details
I like to use Google images as a way to brainstorm many different creative ideas or conundrums. So after some browsing I decided to use the new 5th edition D&D logo from Wizards of the Coast (makers of D&D) for the sides of the table.
As you can probably tell from the photo collage above, making the logo was pretty easy – and I am NOT an artist.
I simply printed out the logo the size that I wanted, cut out the red portion with an X-acto knife, traced it with a pencil onto the table (because DIY paint is clay-based you can draw on it before you seal it, easy peasy), and painted it with a regular paintbrush.
How easy is that?!
I also wanted some other details on the table, but I wasn’t sure as to what they should be.
Google to the rescue, of course.
Thanks to D&D 5th edition there were some great symbols for each character type that would work really well. So I decided to use those as designs on the bottom crossbar in different colors.
Just as with the bigger logo, I printed out the images the size I needed, cut them apart, cut out the white parts with an X-acto knife, and used the outline to trace them onto the crossbar where I wanted them.
Then came the paint.
I like color and I own most of the colors in the metallique and sparks lines of Art Alchemy, so I just used a different color for each character symbol.
(WHY do I have so many of these? Because I used them a few years ago to paint pictures on some windows. I thought sunlight would reflect well off of the metallics and ‘sparks’.)
If you’re curious to know what symbols and colors I used, here is a picture of each as well as a list:
- Sorcerer = Red Wine (Metallique)
- Paladin = Ginger Magic (Sparks)
- Wizard = Royal Blue (Metallique)
- Warlock = Crocus Fields (Metallique)
- Barbarian = Coral Reef (Metallique)
- Ranger = Dark Forest (Metallique)
- Bard = Frozen Berries (Metallique)
- Rogue = Royal Red (Metallique)
- Cleric = Silver Spoon (Metallique)
- Monk = Magical Pond (Sparks)
- Fighter = Steampunk Copper (Metallique)
- Druid = Green Olive (Metallique)
- Artificer = Brass Hardware (Metallique)
More Detailing?
The ugly brown table was now a black. The D&D logo was a rich metallic red on each side, AND the crossbar was full of colorful character symbols. Woohoo!
While I was still researching possible ways to adhere the tile, I felt something was missing from the table. But this is also where I often get in trouble. lol. Doing one too many things that then makes me regret what I did. However, I did it anyway. *shrug*
I used Silver Spoon (metallique) all around an indented section near the top of the table and liked the effect, but hated how sloppy it looked.
This was partly because of how the table is shaped and partly because I don’t have a steady hand anymore – not since I had a stroke at age 36. My hands shake juuuust a little when I try to do steady work and it fudges it all up.
So what now? “Think, think, think,” as Pooh bear says.
There is a little lip just under the silver section, but I didn’t want it silver TOO. Hmmm…
A-hah! Let’s try the Raven Black (sparks) color down there. It will be a bit of a transition from the silver of the stripe to the black of the base.
Bingo! It had just enough of a sparkle that it hid the little slips in the Silver. I can live with that!
(And now you know my deep dark secrets….lol.)
Time to Top Coat
Time to seal the deal! Get it? SEAL the deal? Top coat? Sealant? *waka waka*
Lol. Right. Moving on.
Debi’s DIY paint has a product called Big Top that works as a great top coat. It rehydrates the clay-based paint so that it deepens the color and also adds a little shine to it while it protects the paint. Just like the rest of the DIY products, there are no VOCs, no harmful chemicals, it’s non-yellowing, and it’s water-based. LOVE it. I had never used it over non-DIY paint, but it did great! If you look at the picture collage below, you can see the before and after with Big Top.
While I was working on each character symbol I had also figured out how I wanted to try adhering the tile to the table. But I couldn’t actually find anyone who DID it the way I wanted to try it. There were similar uses but nothing exactly the same. So here goes nothing, right?
My idea was to use Resin. That way the tile tabletop would be smooth and easy to clean, as well as having the benefit of not using a handful of products for gluing and grouting and whatever else I didn’t want to do. I already had a product in mind from some research I did a few years ago for something else, but had never actually tried it. Time to give it a shot!
Choosing A Resin & Tint
The product I used is called Art Resin.
It’s more expensive than some but I chose it because, much like Debi’s DIY paint, it is non-toxic, has no VOCs, is non-yellowing, and is super easy to use with a 1:1 simple mixture ratio. It also had stellar reviews everywhere I looked.
BUT, I was using tile SHEETS. Clear resin would look silly with the white mesh of the sheets showing through. How was I going to fix that? Art Resin tints to the rescue! Lol.
I figured (and crossed my fingers) that if I added a metallic tint to the resin it would be clear enough to easily see through but metallic enough to hide the webbing between the tiles.
So I bought a metallic tint variety pack since I wasn’t sure if I wanted a pearl or a silver – I needed options.
I decided to put the top coat on the entire table BEFORE the tile and resin because I wasn’t sure how much table would show above or through the resin and I didn’t want two different colors of black. lol. So, believe it or not I did the top coat and the resin all in the same afternoon.
Big Top dries SO fast, just like the clay-based paint, that I put two full coats on the table in maybe an hour or so. And THEN still had plenty of time in the afternoon to do the resin. I mean, more reasons I love Debi’s DIY paint.
ANYwho. Resin time.
Tile Placement & Resin
First I wanted to make sure my tiles wouldn’t slip around since I had some full sheets and some half sheets I had to piece together to make the right size. I didn’t have any tile adhesive so I just used my daughter’s clear Elmer’s glue she makes slime with. LOL. I mean, I didn’t want while glue possibly showing and I figured I just needed them to stay still long enough to get hardened in place by the resin, so why not? It barely took any glue anyway!
I used a tack cloth to wipe down the tabletop surface and a little foam brush to spread the glue around. Voila. Tiles staying put.
Next up, what I was most nervous about – resin.
VERY important first step: I used a carpenter’s level to make sure my table was as level as I could get it. Oooof course my driveway wasn’t level, so I folded up some paper towels and put them under the appropriate legs to level it out. Not perfect, but rather close. Going with it!
The resin calculator on the Art Resin website said I would need the full 8oz of both resin and hardener for the space I was going to cover. Buuuut I only started with half because I figured it wasn’t taking into account the amount of tile in that space as well. So that first half I only used the pearl metallic tint and a hint of silver.
As I poured it onto the tabletop, it became clear pretty quickly that 4oz each of resin and hardener would be nowhere near enough. AND it become obvious that using a little foam brush to spread the resin around was not the best idea. It just weighed down the foam and ripped it off the stick. LOL. Lesson learned! What next….plastic silverware! You use what you got, right?
I quickly mixed up the rest of the resin and hardener, but this time added about the same amount of pearl AND silver tints. You see, the first half of resin did a pretty good job of hiding the white webbing but it didn’t fully hide it. We needed more silver. However, I was thrilled to see that the metallic tints weren’t making it difficult to see the tiles at ALL, as I kind of feared they could. In fact, it was making them look pretty cool!
With the help of my plastic silverware, I got the resin mixture spread then started inspecting my work. I realized the table wasn’t exactly level, so there was some pooling on one side, but it was an exercise in “let it go” to ignore that. Lol. Otherwise, it was SO easy to just use my silverware to move the mixture around to little places that needed more or less, and wipe off anything that got too high on the table sides with a paper towel, while it was still wet.
Props to Art Resin’s calculator, by the way. It was SPOT on. I won’t doubt it’s brilliance again.
Now for some fun with torches! *big grin*
In order to get any air bubbles out of the resin, you simply need a little butane torch.
While the resin is still liquid, torch anything with a bubble and it will come right out. In fact, it was my favorite part of the project, I kid you not. I wish every clean up job was this fun!
You can see how easy it was in the picture: an example of before a little torch and after a little torch on a bubble between tiles.
Final Result!
I did it! I conquered my resin anxiety and it looked pretty good! Now I had to cover it from dust and bugs while it dried for at least 24 hours. That took some searching for something big enough to cover the table and not fall into the resin…but we prevailed. 🙂
Twenty-four hours later I was VERY pleased with the results!!
There was one stupid bubble that must have popped up when I moved it inside to dry (because I KNOW it wasn’t there when I was torching) but c’est la vie. I borrowed some figs from my husband’s stash and took it outside to see how it looked in ‘use’.
I really like the little bugger!
Now, should I make some kind of Dragon Master screen to go with it?
Should I give it to someone I know or sell it?
What do YOU think??
(Leave me a comment below or drop me a message through the Contact page.)