Crafting is fun and sometimes it’s easy. Other times we find ourselves challenged and biting off more than we can chew. So what about the craft projects we take on that don’t go our way? Do not get discouraged! Whether your piece just did not turn out the way you wanted, or was a total dud you can always fix it.
I have a ten dollar table purchased from the Salvation Army that was a blank canvas when I started and has now seen multiple layers of paint. This is not because I’m heavy handed with a brush, but rather because I was not satisfied with my design, twice. Here was my second try on the table. I finished and was happy for a short time. After a while it became overwhelming in color and underwhelming in design. It was time for a change.
I took my flop of a table and sanded it all over. I was thorough because I wanted to avoid the extra step of priming the table and felt that the charcoal color I had chosen to replace it was dark enough for complete coverage. I began to cover the old design with the charcoal color and brainstorm my new design. I chose to do a plaid pattern. I was determined to flip this flop with no extra cost so I committed to paints I already had. I used a metallic shade of white and a metallic cream color to accent the dark matte charcoal paint I used as my base. Before doing a detailed pattern I recommend sketching your image/design elsewhere or in pencil on the piece itself. For my piece, I used pencil to create the lines I needed for the table top pattern.
My next step was to color in the lines. I used my metallic paints and created a fourth color to my pattern by mixing both metallic colors for a new shade. As you can see, I did not concern myself with neat lines at this stage. I focused more on covering the charcoal to allow my accent colors to pop.
As I moved through my work I noticed that the table top mimicked a tile pattern more than plaid so I changed course. Once I completed the messy filling of my traced squares, I went through with each color and cleaned up the lines to create more definition. My flop got flipped into a piece I could be proud of.
This is not to tell you to create a tile design or promote the colors I chose. This is to remind you that your flop can always be flipped!
By Alison LaPaglia
