DIY: Vase to Leather Side Table

Hey Crafty Cats!!! So I have had this vase for a LONG TIME. This vase has been behind my couch hiding… ALSO FOR A LONG TIME. I have been gathering things around my house, stashed them in my basement for a hoard sale one of these days, and was walking this beauty downstairs when the idea popped into my head:  I thought that this would be the perfect height for a side table in our front room. Since i’m slightly compulsive (you kind of have to be if you are a DIY-er), I immediately took a trip down to Lowe’s to see if they had a wood circle that would fit nicely on top to create a side table. I could have cut my own wood, but a pre-cut piece sounded really enticing. So off I went. The thing about DIY-ing is that you just have to start and have faith that it will turn out, otherwise you would never start. I’m never sure exactly HOW i’m going to make it happen, but I always know it will work out at least most of the time. Here are the steps I took:

1. Choose a vase: mine is about 30″ tall. I’m sure there are rules to use spray paint on glass, and I pretty much abandoned them. I really like the Rust-Oleum Primer. It seems to cover VERY NICELY. The matte finish spray will give you a nice finish. Three coats of primer was perfect. I then put a sealer on top of the primer since I didn’t need any more spray paint on it.

2. Tape & Paint a Stripe:  **TIP**:  It’s tricky to tape a straight line on a piece with curves. One of the ways to do this is to measure from the top of the vase and tape, then measure to the spot where the second piece of tape will lay and tape. This way your line will be straight. When using painter’s tape on a line with edge that tapers in, use the very edge of the tape until you take it all the way around your piece. After this is done, push the lower side of the tape that isn’t touching the piece all the way down.

3. Gold Spray Paint:  It’s hard to find a gold spray paint that is actually metallic. The one I found was perfect. It’s called Rust-Oleum Specialty Metallic spray paint (GOLD). It’s more of a matte metallic, which is exactly what I was looking for. I think there’s a find line between white trash metallic gold and awesome sauce gold.

4. Leather Table Top:  I used a piece of hardwood plywood that is 14″ in diameter. You could really use a variety of materials to cover the table top;  I chose leather since I already a piece of it and it was absolutely the perfect color. If you remember my LEATHER TRIBAL FRINGE WALLET, I used the same leather for the table top. A couple tips:

• Cut the leather piece 3″ larger than your piece of wood (depending on how thick your wood is, mine is 3/4″).
• Use an industrial stapler and pull opposite sides (shown below) and staple so it stretches in all the right directions, otherwise, you would have the leather pull in strange places. Brooke from ALL THINGS THRIFY taught me that awesome crap. Thanks Brooke!
• Move around the piece until you have many opposite sides stapled then finish them off so it is stapled all around.

5. Marking for furniture nails:   I know you can buy the strips of nails, but I wanted the individual nail look. I purchased these at Lowe’s. This is one of the coolest tricks I came up with one this project. I tried to staple the individual furniture nails so they were even and after about three, I knew I couldn’t make it look awesome all the way around. The best way to make these even it to get a flexible measuring tape and tape it to the piece with gentle tape (washi was awesome) and the center the measuring tape from top to bottom and tape it down. Then use a pin to poke a hole through the measuring tape and into the leather. I did mine every 3/4″. After this is done, remove the tape you can easily see the small holes for your nails. Proceed to nail with a hammer, the furniture nails into the piece. This part turned out awesome. They were DEAD ON. Although I will say that I had to remove a few that were crooked, it turned out to be a great method. I chose a slightly smaller piece of wood for the base and painted it white.

6. Glue the wood pieces to the vase. (don’t you love those little toes in that picture above) For this part, use E6000 generously. I will find out how great of an ideas this was in a couple months when it either falls apart or stays strong. I like E6000 because if you give it enough surface to adhere to, it will stay put for life. Also, it’s a great glue for glass, wood, plastic and a multitude of other materials. I think this time it’s pretty sturdy.

Sometime I know people cringe when nice wood is painted over or pretty glass, like my DAD, but I can’t help but think that it’s fun to make something I totally had no use for, into one of my favorite furniture pieces in my house.

HAPPY DIY-ING!

xoxo,  KIRSTEN