Category Archives: Table

Green Marble table with Jade Beads

This small side table is painted with a faux marble surface and trompe l’oeil jade beads that appear to have been casually dropped there. The necklace looks ready to scoop up and put on, doesn’t it?  The key is in the shadows!  The table has graceful legs with carved knees which I gilded gold. I included a photo here of the faux marble surface before I painted the beads.  This now charming table was a rescue from a tag sale and it looked unsalvageable when I took it home.  It had been painted with such thick black paint that the drips could almost be peeled off! I stripped it and sanded it. The broken trim on one side had been ridiculous attached with a hot glue gun! Needless to say I removed it, cleaned it up, molded a little missing length and reattached it so well that even I am not sure which side I fixed!

Stones on a Vanity Table

What a joy it was to paint this table!  I worked from real stones and photographs of real stones. It was a challenge to make the randomness of the stones both natural and artistically placed.  Painting realistic stones takes a combination of technique, patience and old brushes that can be handled ‘roughly.’ Doing the stripes that naturally occur in some stones is not easy, if done wrong the stripe would seem painted’ on the outside.   The client requested “No pink or brown stones”, but the piece needed the hints of rust, yellow and green or else the all gray palette would have been too cold.   Of course there has to be a bug on the stones! A delicate Damselfly was perfect for what appears to be a scene from the water’s edge.  Everyone who has seen this table points to a different stone as their favorite. Which one is your favorite?   I painted the legs in four alternating shades of gray.  When this table was originally brought to me it was painted an ugly bright yellow, what a transformation!

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