Flea Market Flip Project: Music Tile [Coffee] Table

Giving the fact that I have always been obsessed with art and music growing up, I wanted to incorporate it into one specific project, and this is one of them! Of course, tiles are usually made for renovating a wall or floor, but what about a table? Now, that's learning to think outside the box!

Inspired by the hit TV show "Flea Market Flip", I came up with a new project idea: Picture Perfect (take something that's "ugly duckling" and refurbish or renew it with pictures, photographs, or poster sized images that are decoupaged onto the furniture).

Step 1: Materials

For my table makeover, the materials I used are:

a wooden table
ceramic tiles
your choice of paint (I'm using Cherries Jubilee by Glidden)
a large paint brush (to paint the table)
ceramic tile adhesive
images of music album covers
scissors
Mod Podge
a foam brush or large paint brush
sanding paper or a sanding block
old newspaper

These other materials are not shown, but what you will also need are:

small tubes of paint
smaller paint brushes
paper towels

Step 2: Prep Table

First, clean off the table with disinfecting wipes or a wood cleaner, and dry it off with paper towels. You might also want to sand the table down a bit, so that the tiles can stick to the table top better.

Step 3: Paint Tiles

From there, go to the computer and research images of your favorite music album covers. Then, enlarge them so they are slightly smaller than your ceramic tiles. I used Photoshop to edit my images. Then, print out your images.

Step 4: Decoupage

Once you've printed out your images, decoupage them on the tiles, one by one, with a layer of Mod Podge. Follow that with another layer of decoupage on top to seal. Let each tile dry completely.

Step 5: Paint Table

While the tiles dry, paint the table and let that dry completely as well. Note that I've painted the top, even though I didn't really need to, because it was going to be covered with tiles anyway. I strongly suggest, though, that you do at least two coats of paint so that it's completely covered. Again, I used Glidden paint in this beautiful dark pink, which they call "Cherries Jubilee".

Step 6: Add Tiles

Now, using ceramic tile adhesive, apply the tiles to the table! Let everything dry completely before using! When doing this step, make sure that you lay out your adhesive evenly so that the tiles stay level. In other words, when something is level, it's laid out evenly in a row or line.

Step 7: Decorate!

As an optional bonus, you can paint music notes on the edges and legs of the table to keep up with the music theme, like how I did here. I painted white music notes on the edges, black ones on the legs.

Step 8: Complete

To make this as a coffee table, you can place a piece of plexiglass on top to preserve the images. I actually don't have that at this point, but this is the can't-missed item that is music to the ears!

Here's the scoop: What I did was that I hand-picked 25 images of my favorite album covers. Then, after decoupaging them on the tiles, I arranged them on the table in rows representing a specific decade. However, in addition to that, I wanted to arrange the tiles / albums in the order in which they are released!

70s

*Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

*Patti Smith: Horses

*Fleetwood Mac: Rumours

*Linda Ronstadt: Simple Dreams

*Saturday Night Fever soundtrack

80s

*Duran Duran: Rio

*Men at Work: Business as Usual

*Madonna: Like a Virgin

*Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA

*Janet Jackson: Control