Keep Calm and Indulge

A couple of weeks ago, I was on my way home after a long day of garage and estate sales, when I saw one last sign just blocks from my apartment. I decided to stop by, even though I was down to my last dollar.

There were a lot of kids clothes, and some old electronics. . . and a baby changing table. Boy, it was in rough shape. One of the drawers was missing its pull, and the same drawer needed to be glued back together, and a kid had scribbled all over the side with pen, and something strange had dripped over it and dried. It seemed like exactly the sort of item its owner might want to make a deal for. . .

Of course, that's what I spent my last dollar on. I felt a little silly, but I had big plans for that beat-up changing table. Over the next week and a half, I added casters to the legs, used disinfecting wipes and a Magic Eraser to get rid of the pen marks and strange gunk, and gave it some saucy acrylic crystal drawer pulls.

But I wasn't sure what to do with the top of it. My dream was to turn it into a kitchen island/drink station/mini-bar, so I wanted to waterproof it. I thought about using those little tiles and grout and actually mosaic-ing it, but I didn't know if that would warp the cheap wood. I really wanted to decoupage an antique-looking world map onto the top, but I couldn't find one anywhere. To explore my options, I spent a few hours in Michael's, where I found a deal on craft paper (6 12x12 pieces for $1), and was able to hunt down the pour-on bar top resin that I'd seen online.

Ultimately, I ended up writing a trendy little slogan on top ("Keep Calm and Indulge"), and then surrounded the letters with home improvement store paint swatches in a mosaic pattern. If I had it to do over again, I would just do the mosaic with no words. Here's how it turned out:

Although Kat and I are trying to make this whole furniture repurposing thing profitable, this is another piece that will be staying in my apartment kitchen. And I don't feel bad about that at all.