DIY Stenciled Table Top

A few weeks ago while I was laying in Evan's teeny tiny hospital bed, squished to the side and unable to move, I was browsing Pinterest when I came across the prettiest DIY table. I knew I wanted to create my own for Elli's homeschool table so I pinned it and went about my browsing. After we were discharged, the first time, I went yard-saling and found the perfect table for super cheap! I loaded it up in the van and set out to get all of my supplies. Unfortunately, hospital admission #2 threw a wrench into my plans so I had to patiently wait to finish it. I am so thrilled to share that it is now complete and I could not be any more in love with this table! Seriously! I want to stencil every piece of furniture in my home now, lol.

My inspiration came from this post at Domestic Imperfection. See? Totally gorgeous, right?


Here is my $15 yard sale table. It's just your basic, every day dining room table.

First, I painted the legs of the table. I used primer & paint duo spray paint in white. It took 2 cans to cover the legs and no sanding was required. 

Next I(we) sanded down the table top. Sanding was the most time consuming (and messy) part of the project and was a major pain in the rear. Who has two thumbs and an awesome husband who will trade a date night out for a date night in sweating and getting tore up by mosquitos? This girl. Love you hunny! :)

Once the top was completely sanded down, I painted on the stencil. Originally I planned to repeat the stencil over the entire top, but then decided to just do a border because of how busy the design was. I purchased my stencil at Michael's with a 50% off coupon for $5 and used just your basic 79cent acrylic paint in white. I also purchased a stencil foam roller with a 50% off coupon for just a couple bucks. This stencil, made by Folk Art, was really great and had a guide for repeating the design, which made lining it up super easy. 

I borrowed stain and polyurethane from my dad and stained the top the next morning. (You could stain same day if you'd like, the acrylic paint dries very fast.) Since this was my first time staining anything, I called the expert, aka my Dad, and had him walk me through the process via FaceTime. I dipped a clean, folded up rag into the stain and wiped down the table, following the grain of the wood. Once it was covered, I took another clean rag and wiped in a circular motion across the entire table. That whole process took about 5 minutes! Don't forget the gloves! 

I decided I liked the color with one application and after it dried for several hours, I brushed on a few coats of polyurethane. The whole process was relatively simple, just very time consuming. It ended up taking 3 days to complete the table but I would do it over in a second! This is my completed table: 

So gorgeous! 

Home Sweet Home.. Part Deux.

As many of you know, Evan was readmitted into the hospital last Monday for bilateral pleural effusions, aka fluid in both sides of his chest. It was an emotionally exhausting 5 day stay that included an unwanted room in the PICU, angry nurses, tears of frustration, and finally a much happier little boy. We had such a horrible experience in the PICU that I am choosing to not relive it, therefore I will not be sharing the details of our experience. Lets just say heart kids belong in the cardiac icu for a reason. 

We were discharged home Friday afternoon and let me tell you, Evan has been non-stop since we walked out of the hospital! He is completely back to his normal self and has way more energy than I imagined he would! Today was his post-discharge follow up at the cardiology office and he ran around the whole waiting room for almost an hour before being called back. He made sure to stop and say hi to every single person waiting too. I can't believe how outgoing he is and just how happy he is in general. This kid has more strength than I could ever have, especially for just having open heart surgery 3 weeks ago! The cardiologist was super impressed with Evan today, his heart and lungs sounded perfect and his chest x-ray was completely clear, thank God! You know what the best part of the day was? Watching Evan run around for so long without taking a break and without turning blue. I am just.. just so amazed. I am so thrilled Evan is POST FONTAN and know that he can now live to his fullest potential. 

Saturday night we went to dinner with family for my husband's birthday. My father in law mentioned to our waitress that Evan had his third open heart surgery just 2 weeks ago and she was just blown away because he looked so good. Then she turned to me and told me she was amazed at how calm and at peace I was for just having gone through something so major with my child. I just smiled and said thank you, but I have been thinking so much about her words and keep coming to the same conclusion. How can I not be at peace when I have Jesus? How can I be afraid if I trust in my Father? How can I not have a positive attitude when my God is always faithful? I don't want Evan to ever be afraid of his future, or lack of a future. I want him to trust the Lord with all of his heart and I hope he will see that in both Scott and I.. We love our little man and don't ever want to set limitations for his future, unless we are talking about dating, then the answer is never. ;)

Please remember to keep all of our heart buddies going in for their Fontans this summer in your prayers. Going through major surgery with your preschooler is absolute madness and the anxiety building up to the date really sucks. 

OH! I almost forgot, Evan has been talking so much more in the last few weeks! He has now added "moo moo", "all done", "baby", "pizza", "coke", "eat pizza", "thank you", and "jake" to his vocabulary! Yay! :)