How To Decoupage a Piece of Furniture with Memories

I find myself becoming more and more sentimental as the boys are getting older.  One is a Senior now at Western Kentucky, recently engaged while the other is a Junior at SIUE and lives at home.  It won't be long and they'll be raising families of their own.  Amazing!

I have been throwing around multiple ideas for what to do with my coffee table in the living room, that I hate, and finally made a decision, my sentimentality won out!


I am well underway with the project and am really, really happy with my choice.  I'm thinking I'll be spending more time in the living room now.  Here's a picture from when we moved in (it's changed a little since then but this is the best before picture of the table).

One of my favorite thrift store finds are furniture pieces that have great bones but need a little personalization and TLC. 

Now, here's what I've done:

Originally I thought I'd lay the pictures out squared off into boxes with each box facing a different direction.  So, four boxes with wherever you're sitting the right side of the table would have pictures facing you.  Well, after laying it out I decided I didn't like it very much.

Then I tried a "pin wheel" and I fell in love with that, the "movement" it created was fantastic.  The center picture is a larger picture of my husband with my oldest (one of my favorites) and the pics just radiate outward from there.  I smile every time I walk into this room.  Right now it's only glued down, its nearly time to start putting on the final coats.  Can hardly wait!

If you've never decoupaged this is a really easy project.  I put the pictures right over the top of the glass but you could also do them from underneath.  I used a large paintbrush and put a coat of mod-podge on, you don't want too thick of a layer but just put it on and spread it out the best you can.  Lay your pictures over the top and use something flat to smooth out any bubbles (I use a small rolling pin and my hands, works for me).  Wipe up any excess as you go.

Here's a great article from Mod Podge Rocks entitled The 7 Steps to Perfect Mod Podging Every Time.  If you've never tried decoupage before it's worth checking out before you dive in.

After its dried for roughly 15 minutes give it another quick coat of mod podge right over the top.  I gave this table 4 coats with a light sanding between each coat.  That's it.  Took me a couple hours to put the pictures on and another couple hours to finish off the top-coats.

Now I am completely in love with my coffee table.  I can't help but sit around it and reminiscence about "the good ole' days".  What wonderful memories!