Home projects - Dresser & Play table

I recently decided to take on a couple quick projects at home while organizing the basement.  These wall decals were actually supposed to go into the bathroom downstairs, but I obviously procrastinated.  And over a year later, somehow - I figured it would go better on this dresser:

The dresser was in the guest bedroom in the basement and I've decided to move it out into the living area instead.  This basement is going to just have a mish-mash of furniture from all our different homes/moves.  Ha ha!

You know, this didn't turn out half bad in the end.  Looks decent! :-D

I was also finally able to finish a project with a play table that I had purchased from a thrift store  many many months ago.  I really should be more like my neighbor friend - she says that she will only buy furniture that won't be another project!  So true!!!  

Okay, here is the frame of the play table.  I didn't like this color so I decided to spray paint it with a darker, hammered look:

And then, this is the board that goes on the top.  I was too lazy to get my sander out, and I saw the ice scraper handy nearby in the garage:

Yeeeaaah... not very smart, because after painting it blue - the table is still so rough!

And so I decided to find some sort of sand paper (yeah, still too lazy to get the electric sander) and repainted the table top again.  Not 100% smooth but better than what it was before.  I'm probably still going to regret the decision of not getting the proper sander/tools!

Anyway... making some templates for fishes to paint on the board.  Had the boys draw 2 fishes each and was obviously cutting these up in very bad light upstairs.  LOL!

By the way, here's the inspiration that I found online :-)

But before that, I decided to draw out the outline for the state of Illinois.  Found the inspiration when I saw a lady's sweater that had the outline of the state.  Ha ha!

Managed to get Charlie to help out a bit with filling in patterns on all the fishies:

Not too shabby! :-D

And this one that got hooked on a fishing line is pretty close to where we live on the map :-)

And oh, who knew there was a difference between Enamel, Lacquer, and Shellac!

Let's just say I was glad I didn't find what I thought was lacquer but eventually ended up being shellac at the house.  The trip to the hardware store was totally worth it because the enamel spray was the right product to use!

I'm glad the paint color got darker with the spray.  But yikes, that spray smells so bad!! I did give it about 2 extra coats, just in case:

Ta da!!!

Perfect game table! And I think it looks so cute. Now we just have to come down into the basement more.  Ha ha!  But hey, this is a start :-)