It is easy to turn an old side table, dresser or plant stand into a shiny, new looking and trendy item of your home.  In my previous post, I mentioned a mirror side table for my outside seating area (doesn’t that sound grand?!), which I up cycled myself on a Sunday afternoon.

Ps: please forgive the photo quality, taken with my phone!

What you need:

• Old side table or plant stand & discarded pallet – both gifted from a friend who had no longer any use for them.
• Brush and tub
• Mirror piece (I used 1 Lots mirror which is 30 x 30 cm from Ikea)
• Superglue
• Paper tape (or Masking Tape)
• White Paint & Paint Brush (I had left over from when I had the flat painted last year)
• House Hold Gloves, Scissors (optional)
• Sanding Paper (optional)

 

How you make it:

Take the brush to the plant stand and pallet, so you can brush off any remaining sand and dust.  This is important to make sure you working area is nice and clean, and you can paint the surfaces easily. Rinse the items off if needs be.

At this point, depending on the style you want your items to be, you can opt for sanding down the wood to make it smoother.  This depends on the effect you like, I went for a more relaxed shabby chic look so decided against it.

When sufficiently clean and dry, use the superglue to glue the mirror piece to the top of the plant stand.  Apply pressure to ensure the mirror is glued properly.

In mean time, spread some newspaper paper or a cut open bin liner on the floor, and place both the pallet and the side table with the mirror piece on them.  Use the paper tape, to tape off the mirror to prevent paint from coming on it.  Proceed with painting the exposed wood with your white paint.

If you decided to go rather shabby chic for the pallet, like I did, you will notice that the wood absorbs quite a lot of white paint. Don’t be surprised to use more paint that you thought you would!

Leave items to dry, and when dry, remove the paper tape and any splotches of paint you may have made accidentally.  Now your up cycled items are done and ready for use.