The sweetest table ever!

I have been wanting to paint Eli's train table in his room since the day it was built (about a year and a half ago!). I always figured I'd get on it and make the top of it super cute like train tables you can by, with trees and bridges, that kind of stuff. More time passed and I figured I'd just end up spray painting it or something. I at least wanted to make it one color and get rid of the plain plywood look. There's nothing wrong with it being plain, it serves it's purpose, and Eli never really seemed to care, but it just wasn't very fun looking or pretty (by mommy's standards).

So when I saw my dear friend, Amy's (you should really scroll through and check her desk out....it's amazing!), old desk re-do, I was in love. I decided that I needed that kind of makeover on Eli's table and asked if she'd help me paint it. Thankfully she agreed, because if it had been up to me to get it going and done, it never would have happened:) The idea of starting it kind of overwhelmed me, but I sure wanted it painted. So she and her little boy came over last week so the kids could play and we could paint. We somehow actually managed to get quite a bit accomplished, which was pretty amazing because my two kiddos were kind of being nightmares! Kamdyn only wanted me to hold her and Eli was having a VERY hard time sharing his toys with Griffin and was sent to his room in tears many many times. I didn't think we'd ever get anything done! But, it's amazing how much you can finish in a short amount of time with two people.

This project still isn't done, but it's done enough for my liking for right now. I told Amy it was like the never ending project:) Everytime I get done with one thing, there's another little detailing issue I have to work on. I still want to do a little more cleaning up and touching up and add some "water creatures" to the water on the top. Maybe next week:) After 2 days of this work, I was ready for a break! Enough of my rambling about the table, I'll get to the pictures of the "finished" product.

Table before paint: isn't it beautiful. My personal favorite touches are the juice and drink stains on it:) It definitely needed a little TLC and a coat of paint!
In progress....where we left it when Amy and Griffin had to leave for the afternoon. Not too shabby and looking sooooo much better all ready. The zebra side is my absolute favorite (wish I could say I did that part, but I can't take any credit, that was all Amy's brilliance)

Shot of the other side half-way finished
Finished (for now) product. I painted part of the top with chalkboard paint. This is the first time I have ever used this stuff and let me just say it is SO cool. I want to put some of this somewhere in the basement when it's finished (maybe in the office/scrapbook room) for the kids to write on. I wasn't ever really sure it worked very well, but it does. It dries super fast too which is very nice/



There you have it.....like I said, I still have some more I want to do on it, but for now, I'm satisfied (at least for another week or so). It is a drastic improvement from where it came from. Give it a little more time though and the perfectionist in me is going to want to see it all finalized and cleaned up:). Thanks for the help Amy, couldn't have done it without you!!!