Before & After: Ellen’s Dressed Up Table

Written by

Adrienne BreauxHouse Tour Director at AT Media
Adrienne BreauxHouse Tour Director at AT Media
For more than 10 years, I've led Apartment Therapy's real home content, producing thousands of house tours from around the world. Currently, I live in my maximalist dream home in New Orleans, Louisiana, with my partner, a perfect dog, and a cute cat.
published Feb 8, 2014
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Post Image
(Image credit: Ellen Walsh)

Ellen was looking to recreate a clothing store feel in her dressing room, and already had a large kitchen pedestal table in the space. When she came across this “ugly” 80s table at a Savers thrift store for $7.50, she knew she’d be able to use it along with her existing table to create a neat cluster effect.

(Image credit: Ellen Walsh)

From Ellen:

I decided to paint both tables a dark gray top with a taupe/brown base as I had seen something on Pinterest and was inspired to recreate that color combination. Next I had to figure out how to tackle the ugly faux-leather top on my little coffee table. I have been meaning to try silver-leafing something for quite a while now, so I figured why not try with this project? Two packets of silver leaf later and a lot of huffing and puffing and concentration and apple ale and I was semi-satisfied with the silver leaf result.

I sprayed a couple of layers of Polyurethane varnish over the silver leaf so that I wouldn’t scratch off the silver and it seems to be holding up okay. A quick two layers of gray, two layers of brown underneath and I was ready to style my dressing room. I got the entire thing including the buying of table and equipment done in a day. I am very happy with the results and feel I have achieved an Anthropologie type of vibe.

Thank you Ellen!