By Danielle Peterson

Joyce McGarry wanted a new kitchen table-preferably one with a fun, painted design. The tables Joyce admired in magazines and furniture stores all were very expensive, but Joyce realized she could create one herself. "I thought 'I could do that AND add my own personal touch!' Voila, I had my new one-of-a-kind kitchen table at a fraction of the cost of similar tables," Joyce says.

Joyce started by sanding an old table. "I sanded the table to give it 'teeth' for the paint," she explains. For a base coat, Joyce used black spray paint. Once this was dry, she used latex paint for a second coat. Since she wanted her table to have a distressed finish, Joyce sanded the areas where she wanted the look to be more prominent.

Using a diamond stencil she created from cardboard, Joyce created the pattern on the top of the table. "I outlined the diamonds starting in the middle of the table and worked my way to the ends," Joyce says. Next she created the perfect shade of paint by mixing a few colors she liked. Joyce suggests using a small sponge brush to paint the diamonds because the small tip makes painting the sharp corners and edges easier.

To finish off the table, Joyce used umber tinting to give it more of an aged look. When that was dry, a couple coats of polyurethane were used to seal the table. "Food, schoolwork messes and paint are easily cleaned off the table!" Joyce says. "It also brings together my favorite colors, design and most importantly, family."

Tip from the creator: "For this project, or for any furniture item hat isn't quite "working" for you-paint it! It is amazing what a coat of paint can do to an old, worn item."

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