We have an old, rustic wooden table, which we brought out to Istria with us. It used to be a work table, so was stained with oil drops, paint splashes and cuts in the wood. We used it originally, once cleaned up, as a work desk, as being quite long and thin, could fit into quite small spaces and was the perfect size for a laptop. When we were renovating our Istrian stone house, we wanted to make it much more light and airy and so we spent months painting everything white – stone walls, wood work, ceilings etc. To introduce an immediate pop of colour, we decided to spray paint the wooden table and opted for a hot pink, which certainly did the trick of brightening things up…
As much as we loved the pink, once we got into our groove regarding how we wanted our house to look and feel, it needed to be toned right down, as a more natural palette was starting to emerge. To contrast with the white, a gold spray was opted for, and the table sat quite happily in one of the bedrooms for quite a while…
However, over the course of time, we’ve neglected the table a little bit and it’s been largely left outside, as we’ve moved things around inside. But, it’s sturdy and robust and this spring we decided to give it another lease of life, and use it as an additional outdoor table in the summer. This has meant almost stripping it back to the wood, letting it dry out from the winter, in the sunshine, and caulking the deepest cuts. Once all of this preparatory work was done, it was sanded, primed and undercoated, and then painted in a couple of top coats of white satinwood. An immediate transformation…
But we weren’t quite finished there, as we wanted to transform the top a little. Our minds are turning to all things Andalucian/Moorish, as we begin to start planning what could be the next adventure, and so tiles were considered. Ceramic ones were rejected pretty soon, as we felt that we didn’t want to go to the expense and time, if it didn’t, so after a lightbulb moment, a search was done for waterproof, adhesive tiles and hey, presto – they were delivered a week later, at just shy of €25 (inc p&p) for 24 tiles.
Once we’d decided on the pattern, after a little bit of initial trepidation, we discovered they were very easy to apply, and by leaving a little border around the edge of the table, none of the tiles needed to be cut. They are very adhesive, so we’re hoping that they will withstand a summer, in the garden. The table will be covered or brought indoors though, when we get downpours, as I’m not sure that even being waterproof, they’ll survive our downpours, when they come.
For relatively little expenditure – we had everything except the adhesive tiles – we think we’ve transformed the table and created something which should look lovely in the garden. And, who knows – if the tiles don’t prove to be as adhesive as we need them, we may do it properly and go for ceramics. Perfect for its new home where Moorish inspired tiles rule…