Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Repurposed ugly coasters & tutorial

Hi Nesters!

Today's post is the first of a few "repurposing" projects I've worked on over the past few weeks. This one I did earlier this month. But I caught an awful cold bug and was down off and on (a mom's job doesn't stop when she's sick) for two weeks so I'm just now getting around to posting it. The other projects I'll be posting shortly are ones I did this past week while my son was out sick from school. Poor guy had a stuffy nose, cough and fever (usually around 100.4 but got as high as 101.5 on the last day) and missed an entire week of school. First up is my coaster project.

I've never really found coasters that were to my liking. I've found some that were "good enough" and utilitarian but none that I would actually consider leaving out on my coffee. Still not sure if I'll leave these out all the time, but at least they're cute. Okay, so I decided that I would search for some coasters that were ugly and cheap (easier to do than I thought) and redo them to suit my taste. My first stop, I visited a thrift store which is located a few doors down from my neighborhood grocery store and I found exactly what I was looking for. . .



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Here's what I did:

1) Cover the top of the coasters with one coat of flat black acrylic craft paint and let dry.

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2) Cover top of painted coasters with a coat of Mod Podge.



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3) Cover top of Mod Podge coated coasters (say that 5 times fast, I dare you) with a piece of scrapbook paper (I had some left over from a previous project) and trim paper just to the edge of coasters. Let dry.


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4) Take high grit sandpaper and (using a downward motion) remove excess paper from the edges of the coasters.


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5) Apply a thin coat of spar urethane varnish. Let dry. Apply two more coats of varnish, drying in between coats. Sand with 400 grit sandpaper in between coats if you see brush marks. I didn't want a glossy surface on my coasters so I buffed with 0000 steel wool to remove the shine after the final coat dried.

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Here are the finished coasters. Each one is unique but they all go together.


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Voila!

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If you've had trouble finding coasters to suit your personal taste, I hope my project inspires you. If you've already done a similar project, I'd love it if you'd share a link to it in the comments section.



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Sharing this project at:

Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
It's a Hodgepodge Friday at It's a Hodgepodge Life

Marvelously Messy

Saturday is Crafty Day at Along for the Ride

9 comments. Click here to leave yours.:

  1. Robin,
    So cute and such a great idea! Thanks for sharing your quick and easy Tutorials! I can't tell you how many ugly coasters that have come and gone through my house. Now I wish I would have saved some and given new life to them!

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  2. **love** this idea. I can never find coasters I like either, so now I'll have to give this a try!

    Glad you're feeling better - that same sort of bug hit us a while back and it took forever to get rid of it. :(

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  3. Love the transformation! Great idea! They came out fabulous!

    Cheers!
    Tina

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  4. Those turned out beautiful! I'm your newest follower from frugal Friday's link party. I'm throwing my very first link party tomorrow (Monday). I would love it if you stopped by an added your project.
    http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/

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  5. Thank you all for your sweet comments. They really mean a lot.

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  6. Supports the change of decorations presented much better

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  7. How do these hold up with sweaty glasses? Do they soak up the excess water?

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  8. Kannon: Sorry it took me so long to post your comment and get back to you with a reply. I usually place my wine glass on these coasters and since it's red, it doesn't sweat. So the other day, I used it for iced tea and the coaster performed very well. They didn't soak up the water since I varnished them in spar boat varnish. The water didn't drip off the coasters either. It just sort of stayed under and around the bottom of the glass like it's supposed to and then after I removed the glass, the water evaporated. Perfection!

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