I have had a small Ikea table in the garage that I had been meaning to mosaic for years. I kept having to tackle my hubby who found it every spring during “garage clean up day” and wanted to dump the table. I think now that I have finally finished my mosaic top, he is glad he never threw it out. It’s a wonderful addition to our deck seating.
The challenge with this table was that it truly was meant for inside, and I wanted it outside on my deck. So I had to do some weatherproofing to the exposed metal. The other challenge was that it was a sleek metal surface, and tile adhesive would not have adhered to it like usual mosaics on porous surfaces like dry wall, wood and stone. So the key is to use a silicone or epoxy for metal surfaces. Ask your guys at your hardware store and they’ll help find an epoxy that works for you.
So below is my list of supplies, and the video we cut down to 15 minutes. I think it could have been longer, because I really want to show all the ins and outs of doing this. But my hubby said, in the age of digital even 60 seconds seems like a lifetime, and he said I would bore you all to tears. So take a gander. It truly is easier than it looks.
SUPPLY LIST:
-paper for design planning, and a sharpie or china marker for drawing a design or plan onto the table
-ceramic plates for breaking
-a large hammer to break plates
-some soft fabric you will never reuse (like fleece or cotton) to break plates in between layers
-tarp or garbage bags to cover your work area AND areas of your piece you don’t want covered in anything
-beads and metal charms
-mosaic tiles
-glass tiles or broken pieces
-shells, keys, metal found objects, decorative things to glue down-be creative, but nothing too delicate
-boxes, bags, or craft bin to organize all your pieces and collect all your broken plate pieces
-tile nippers
-plastic gloves and/or rubber gloves
-tubes of epoxy or silicone glue, like Liquid Nails Silicone
-paper towels on hand to clean up glue and grout
– tile grout with poly additive mixed in already for water resistance (if not, buy an additive to mix in to make it water resistant) in the color you want
-water, mixing stick, and disposable bucket to mix grout
-palette knife or small dry wall knife
-wet sponge
-plastic or steel brush
-cheesecloth or terry cloth towel
-Minwax Polycrylic Spray for weatherproofing all of it
Flora is an award-winning creative director in Chicago turned food and lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. She is also author to the popular BEE NATIVE! gardening book series and various children's books that celebrate the wonder and hard work of bees and butterflies. Her blog and social spaces inspire thousands to create, learn, cook, grow, and craft, making their world lovelier one pixel/petal/seed/bite/stitch/brushstroke at a time. Follow her on all the social spaces, YouTube, and Amazon, and get creative!
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