Coasters and a confession

I have a confession, and I think we'll just get this out of the way right now and then get to the good stuff:

I bought my end tables.
As obsessed interested as I am in creating my own things, building furniture and other stuff, I was having a hard time. I really, and I mean REALLY wanted some end tables in my living room, but I was having a hard time figuring out how to build exactly what I had in mind. (I found Knock-Off Wood literally two days after I bought them). We had just spent our third Christmas in our house, and I couldn't. stand. not. having. anywhere. to. put. ANYTHING! Two years ago, my dad made a nativity set for me out of small pieces of wood that he stained and put together (this art is called Intarsia). Made it. With his own hands. It's amazing. And absolutely beautiful. And for two years, I have had nowhere to set it up. So it has stayed in the box he mailed it in.  And it made me sad.

So a few months ago, I was shopping at a place I would never have considered buying furniture from, so had never looked at what they had. I'm waiting in line at the pharmacy, and hears over the intercom that they were totally clearing out a whole line of tables because they need to make room for new inventory. I finished at the pharmacy and casually made my way to the back of the store to see what the commotion was all about. And saw this:

And fell in love.

They're tall enough. Square enough. Big enough. And do you see all that hidden storage? Swoon!

Quality be darned.

But really, how bad could it be anyway?

I double checked the price, and said "I'll take them." They looked at me like "is she serious?" and I said "I want all of them." Before you think I'm too crazy, you should know there were only four. And I had big plans. And places to put all of them.

Then, greediness and shamelessness taking over, I said "what else ya got?"

And bought a charming desk for my craft room.

And all was right in the world.

Until we wanted to actually use the tables in the living room. And I realized, having never owned a nice piece of furniture in my life, that I needed something I had never before considered:

coasters.

So I kept my eyes open to the possibilities and considered different options. Then a few days ago I was shopping a second-hand store for some terra cotta pots to use for this project, when an idea hit me: why not use the little 4-inch saucers and dress them up to make them pretty enough nice looking so they'll work in my living room?

So I got to work, and came up with this:

And then, the very next day, I found someone else had done the SAME project! Crazy! Go check out Sweet Charli to see all their fabulous ideas, including their own terra cotta coasters!

Here's how I made them:

First, I sprayed them down with a primer spray paint... which I had never used before, and hadn't even known existed until recently.

After allowing them to dry for 10 minutes or so, I sprayed them with ivory spray paint:

While those were drying, I traced the lip of a glass and cut out 3-inch circles of scrapbook paper for the insides and felt for the bottoms.  Then I distressed the edges of each paper circle.

Back outside, the dishes looked good after just one coat, so I brought them inside and mod podged the paper circles into the bottoms of each dish.

When I was sure the paper was secure and there were no bubbles underneath, I mod podged over the top of each one.  For this step, make sure to get the edge sealed well, but also clean up any excess mod podge from around the edges (I just used my finger).

After that, I used the same ink from the paper (Chestnut Roan by Color Box is my absolute favorite for distressing) to add some character to the painted parts:

Next was a coat of spray polyurethane.  This is another one I didn't know existed until recently.

I ended up spraying three coats on each coaster, since they'll be coming into contact with condensation on glasses.

All that was left after that was to glue the felt circles to the bottoms of each coaster. I just used tacky craft glue.

And there we have it! In under 2 hours and for less than $5, I had six adorable coasters to fit my living room decor perfectly.