Taylors4You: Table with Succulents

I created this amazing living table with living succulents.

This is project is something that I have been wanting to do for over a year. The one problem I had was finding the table for it. Friday afternoon a neighbor called me to tell me there was a table outside her neighbors house for free. I had told her that I was looking for a table like this last year. So it was such a nice surprise that she remembered . When she told me I loaded the kids all up so fast. This table is a end table that has a glass insert in the middle but I didn’t want the glass. The table was in pretty good shape, but the hubby did tighten the strews up a bit for me.

I wasted no time getting started. I immediately washed the table down. Then let it sit all night since it was getting dark. The next morning I checked a couple sites about refinishing a table, being that I have never done it before. Then sat down and talked with the hubby about where I would put it and the color. Then it was off to the store with the intention of painting it white, I even picked up the paint for it.

Again I wiped the table down before putting the primer. I used white Rust-Oleum Satin Paint and Primer In One. The hubby showed me how since I have never used spray paint. Its definitely a slow process if you wanted it to look nice and smooth. I did two coats of paint, letting it dry for 30 minutes in between each coat.

I wanted to make sure that it dried completely so I gave it a night to dry. Then in the am I sanded it down to make sure it was super smooth. After sanding I vacuumed up the major dust, and then wiped the fine dust off using wet socks. I got the socks slightly damp, stuck my hands in, and wiped away.

Letting the primer dry for the night gave me time to rethink the color. I thought yellow or a rusty orange would be perfect being that I wanted it to go with a lamp that my Aunt had given Brandon and I for our

wedding. The oranges that they had in the store just weren’t the right color so I went with the yellow. I again went with Rust-Oleum. The hubby again helped me out and set up a little paint area for me since I was doing color that way the yellow paint didn’t mist everywhere.

I did 3 coats letting it dry between every coat. I used 3 cans of the spray paint.

Time to finish this up today! I got 400 grit sand paper to shabby chic it, I went a little lite on it because I didn’t want to over do it.

I mainly sanded a little on areas that would wear out naturally over time.

I buffed the table with furniture wax to help it stay nice over time. Now I cut my chicken wire about 7 inches wider then the hole so that it had space for the plants and soil.

I used a staple gun to secure the chicken wire into place. Then used weed block and double layered it and placed on the chicken wire and stapled it in to place.

Now for the super fun and exciting part- filling this table with succulents! I dumped my soil in and the arranged my plants in the soil. I couldn’t get the arrangement exactly how I wanted it, so I removed them completely once. The second time I arranged them I loved what I came up with. I also added sticks the boys had picked up from the beach.