*Pssst… Online Fabric Store provided me with the meat and potatoes for this post (read: the fabric), but I pretty much begged for it and all opinions obsessive or otherwise, are entirely my own!
A while back I tried something for our new guest room. And I looooooved it. Fabric. Furniture. 2Gether. 4EVR. I’ve had this side table in our garage for… a bit. I loved the bamboo detailing and I wanted to cover the rest of it with a fun fabric to go up in Martha’s room.
To prep the side table, I cleaned and sanded and painted it with leftover green paint I had from this dresser. The drawer front had a basket weave texture to it, so I used some spackle to fill this in just a bit. (I was low on the green paint so I only did the spots that weren’t going to be covered with fabric, but ideally I would have done the whole thing… the paint shows ever so faintly through the thin fabric.)
Onto the fabric. I chose this polka dot pattern and it’s a quilting fabric so pretty lightweight. I measured the dresser and cut my fabric. Polycrylic is the magic ingredient for this… just paint on a layer of polycrylic, lay down your fabric, and paint another layer right on top of your fabric. Note: my fabric stretched out a bit when I saturated it with the polycrylic so I had to trim it a bit… I mentioned because you don’t need to cut your fabric EXACTLY to size.
To protect the surface of your fabric treatment, go back over with a few coats of polycrylic.
I love the whimsy and the pattern this fabric brings to the room and I love how it brightened up this $15 side table!
It’s also nice to have a place for her favorite books other than scattered across her bed!
Oh! And Martha personally selected a mouse drawer pull similar to this (affiliate) to use as the drawer pull. Super cute.
This technique is one of my favorites and is the perfect way to bring in some fun pattern to a furniture piece… whether the top of the sides or even the back of a bookshelf… something to remember!
So cute. Especially that drawer pull. Where did you get that?
We got it at Anthro but I don’t think they carry it anymore… I did see some on ebay (I think I included a link on the post…)
Why did you use polycrylic versus mod podge? Trying to learn…turned out very cute!
Hi Jill,
I had Polycrylic on hand so there’s that, but I also feel like it holds up better to moisture. I feel like ModPodge might get a little cloudy if something damp is left on it too long. So for the drawer fronts, no problem, but I figured I’d err on the side of caution for the table top! I also find Polycrylic easier to work with for something this large because it’s not quite as thick as ModPodge. Hope this helps!
SOOOO cute!!! I love that little table for any room!
Thanks, babe!
Love this and I know you told me to do this for the side table I asked about but my concern is being able to cut it nicely – it is a round top and I am NOT good at cutting neatly – any suggestions???
I would trace the table top onto the back of your fabric and just bring it into a tailor. They have sharp scissors and a steady hand! 🙂