Ripped To Pieces - faux mosaic table top

I have been toying with the idea of a faux mosaic project for awhile now and I'm so glad I finally took the leap. Originally I wanted to cover a small chest of drawers but something about the statement a great coffee table can make made me change my mind.  Problem was I didn't have a coffee table, hmm...

I did have a small round table in the back of a closet that I have been meaning to drop off at Goodwill. It is a great little table - super sturdy - just way too small to be functional.

Well, my mind started spinning about what I could do to make it work. Recently my mom was throwing out an old bar style table and I gladly took it off her hands with the intention of trying to save it. I painted the blindingly shiny metal with a dark brown color and had it in my kitchen for awhile. Problem was, the top was broken off from the base and even after drilling new holes and trying to repair it, it just kept sliding around. Fortunately it was the perfect size for a coffee table and would sit right on top of the smaller table I already had. I added a little rubber shelf liner between the two to minimize movement.

As you can see, the paint on the top of the table was already starting to peal and scrape off (guess I should have sealed it) so I needed to cover it with something. Mosaic! Now I will warn you, this took much longer than I anticipated and more than one Ibuprofen was needed to help my aching back from sitting bent over for so long but the final look is A-MA-ZING! All in all I think it took about three evenings in in front of the TV after my son went to bed.

Wanting to keep the look as random as possible, I dug out my scrap paper box and decided to use only what I already had.

 I cut up several different colors and patterns in varying shapes and sizes. Pretty much I just hacked the crap out of the paper with scissors then used watered down Elmer's glue to apply each piece. I like to call this being "strategically random".

It took some picking and choosing to find what pieces would fit best - just think of it as a big puzzle.

Once the entire table top was covered I sealed it with 3 coats of polyurethane (including the sides).

I can not believe how many people have seen this and thought it was glass and grout! I love it more and more everyday and for absolutely no cost to me, I got a unique piece of furniture my family can enjoy for years.