Fun Friday #2: Tray Table Redo

I know how awful this looks.

It's not my fault.

My husband and his dad made beautiful bookcases about three years ago for our office/den, and this is what my husband used to set the cans of stain on.

Yep. It is a mess, and it used to be pretty nice.

I used this in my classroom to set out all of my treasure chest items every Friday until it met its fate.

I guess it's fitting that I feature this project for "Fun Friday." Well... I've been wanting to use a different surface for all of my crafts, since I've been using our dining table. Mind you that table isn't looking as great as it used to either. I guess we're all pretty rough with surfaces in our house. Anyway, this TV tray table just made me sad every time I looked at it.

What I Needed:

a new surface for my small crafting projects & even a surface for my sewing

What Materials I Used:

scissors

leftover pieces of scrapbooking paper

old TV tray table

Mod Podge

sponge brushes

What I Did:

First, I pried off the thicker globs of stains from the table.

I wiped the table as clean as I could with a damp cloth.

I'm too lazy to sand it.

Next, I cut as many 4" x 4" squares of leftover color-coordinated scrapbooking papers that would cover the entire top surface.

I used a sponge brush to spread a thin layer of Mod Podge over the entire top surface.

Then I took a paper square and spread Mod Podge to its back side, applied it to the center of the table, and spread another layer of Mod Podge on its front side.

I did that until I covered the entire top surface of the table. I used scissors to trim the edge pieces of the table. Notice that there was a pattern in the beginning, but it became more random as I got to the edges. I told you they were just left-over pieces!

After the top dried, I applied two more coats of Mod Podge to seal it.

The Result:

Yay! It has come back to life in a big way! I love its clean surface once again! It just goes to show that you don't necessarily need to buy "new" to get "new."

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Now go and Mod Podge something.

By the way, I have a folding table that might meet the Mod Podge fate as well.
The table has really seen better days.

We'll have to see!