Pinspiration (see what i did there?)

I have been pretty stoked about this project, from it's inspiration to the feelings of "dare I?" to its final completion. I have a thing for maps, and when I saw this tutorial for a map stained on wood planks, I knew i wanted to incorporate that into my apartment somehow. I knew I didn't have a lot of random wood at my disposal, let alone the saw, hammer, nails, etc necessary for building it. That's when I started looking at my table. It's a third hand table passed on to my from my brother who got it from his landlord, and who knows where else it has been. The table had plenty of it's own nicks and scratches and stains to testify to it's sordid past. So I thought, "What the heck. Why not give it a face lift?" And so I did. :) 
*note: i happened to time my inspiration with my roommate being out of town, which left only me with the inconvenience of not having a table ;)

First things first, I had my broski help me haul the table from my kitchen to the back patio, since sanding inside did not seem like a very good idea. I was able to borrow a sander from some friends, as well as a liquid stripper, but decided to try the sanding first before I went for the fumes. Turns out, sanding worked just fine! Rough grit worked great for stripping it down, and then I went for a fine grit to smooth it all out.

here's the table pre-sanding

and voila! all sanded down! 

Once I got the table back inside (thanks Phil.again.), I then printed off a map and taped it together. I wasn't sure what would work best for transferring it to the table, so I read a lot of readers' comments on this tutorial and decided to trace the back of the map with a lead pencil. I then turned the map over and taped it onto the table and traced over the top of the map with a pen, making sure to press down firmly.

it doesn't hurt to have some chocolate cake and a few episodes of Bones to keep you company during this tedious procedure ;) 

The map ended up transferring really well, and the wood was soft enough that my tracing left an indentation. I was a little worried that the lead would still show even after I stained the wood, but my stain was dark enough that you can't even tell!

 I got a dark stain from Ace and also purchased some artists brushes for application. I was also super nervous about how well I would be able to keep the outline of the map since I was dealing with stain and not regular paint, but I figured that if all else failed, I could just go dark on the whole thing. It took a little bit of trial and error, but it was pretty simple to stay inside the lines by using a small brush and a small amount of stain at a time.There were a couple of times that the stain leaked outside of the lines, but I was able to sand it down. As luck would have it, it's hardly noticeable at all.

 

After I completed the map, all that was left was to seal the entire table top with a couple coats of sealer, and then call it good! 

I am pretty stoked with the result. and if you had a day (and plenty of warm weather), you could pretty much finish the entire thing in one shot. Waiting for the sealant to dry probably took the longest time.

Without further ado, here's the finished product! :) 

Boom shaka laka. 

Have you been up to any fun projects lately?