Hand Painted Coffee Table

I found my coffee table in someone's trash pile on the side of the road about six years ago. It was black, chipped on the corners and scratched and scuffed on top.

But it had all this pretty detailing that seemed to have promise, so I piled the backseat passengers on top of each other (which was okay because it was my brother-in-law and his girlfriend) and took it home with me.


I sanded it a bit, painted it to match the wood furniture, and broke out my gold paint pen.

Yup, one of those gold pens you can pick up in the office supply section! I tried a couple different kinds of gold paint, and the pen actually was easiest to control and gave the best color.

I looked at Mehendi design books for ideas for the drawings. Since I was free-handing (and am not a great art talent) I sketched out the designs with a pencil before going over them with the pen.

Inside the flowers in the corners I created a monogram of my husband's and my own first initials, H and M.
The detailing on the side was the hardest and took the longest to do.


But, 14 hours of painstaking detail work and a couple coats of polyurethane later, I had a great customized, personalized coffee table for less than $10!