The Never-Ending Side Table

A long time ago I decided I needed a side table or a night stand for the bedroom. So I purchased a little cheap thing that looked OK and did the job. Something like this one from Walmart:

Then after a few years, and a few forgotten water glasses, and baby bottles the table was looking a little bit rough and worn... and well.... cheap. So I thought about replacing it, but thought I might hold out for a new bedroom set instead. Then I realized that my 65 year old house was not built to hold a big bedroom set of today and we would never have the two-nightstand-queen bed-dresser-hutch combo that sort of defines "bedroom set".  So I decided to just work with what I had and try to make this table with the sad top shine again. I have a couple tables with these sad tops, I think it's because I am the only female in this house! Coasters are not indoor Frisbees. They are for preventing this:

There was an obstacle to making something out of this table... It's not real wood. So painting the top would be a challenge because it would only chip and flake like it did before. SO I went with something a little more durable, and water friendly. Tile.

I bought a 2 sheets of tile from the local home improvement store, some rubber cement

and a tub of ready to use grout (no mixing? yes please!) and went home to get creative.

Turns out tile requires patience and maybe even a ruler... I could locate neither. So I slapped on the sticky like I have never seen sticky cement and placed my tiles.... a little off kilter. Crud. Then I grabbed my handy rubber special grout float... basically a grout squoosher inner.

OK, OK... I used the letter N from my kids foam bath toy set. Same diff. ;)

Then I remembered I wanted to paint the table. Le Sigh. Should have done that BEFORE messing around with all that tile. So I covered up the tile, took this bad boy outside and spray, spray, spray. Wonderbar.

Then I determined that tile and  fake wood is an ugly edge and ran back to that old faithful home improvement store and got a length of fancy trim. My husband took it downstairs and cut all the pieces perfectly. Then my dad used some other kind of power tool to attach them all. Some day I will get over my fears of power saws and air tools.

All that work for a crappy cheap side table. (That I am not that in love with... it's still.... meh, I need more practice with tile... and perhaps patience would help. Oh while I am at it I would like the ability to start and finish a proect in one day or less. ha!)