DIY Faux Terrazzo Table!

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Mar. 5

Written By Rachael

Today, Kelsey attempted (and finally succeeded) in creating the terrazzo table of her dreams. We say ‘finally succeeded’ because there have been a couple attempts before this one, including lots of concrete, glass pieces, and broken dreams.

If you don’t totally know what terrazzo is, it’s essentially a material consisting of chips of marble or granite set in concrete and polished to give it a smooth surface (source).

After many attempts, Kelsey has decided to forgo the concrete and glass chips, and go for a faux terrazzo technique instead! Here’s how she did it…

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

16” x 108” white melamine shelving
White chalk paint
Paint brush
Paint in various colours
Scissors
Sponges
Thin paint brush

Kelsey started by picking up some white melamine shelving in white, and sanding it down a bit to allow for easier painting and to round the corners a bit to mimic the look of stone a bit more closely. She then went ahead and painted the whole thing in a thick white chalk paint.

This is to just make sure that everything is all one colour, and any exposed pieces of the particle board are covered! Kelsey used chalk paint because it is really good at not showing too many brush strokes! Let all of this dry! This may take a few coats, just keep adding until you get to your desired opacity!

While all of this dries, Kelsey worked on making a leg for her table. She went ahead and cut and stained a thick piece of dowel. Next, she grabbed a table leg plate and a bolt that is the same size as the plate. Next, she drilled a hole into the top of her dowel big enough to screw the bolt in tightly. The best technique to get the bolt into the hole is to have one person hold the bolt with a pair of pliers while another person twists the dowel. Once the bolt is in, twist the plate onto the bolt!

Time to pick out the colours of your ‘stones’. We chose a colour pallet of grey, dark blue, pink, and blush!

To paint the ‘stones’ onto her table, Kelsey decided to cut some stamps out of sponges. She cut out stone-like shapes in various sizes.

Before we get painting, Kelsey gave her table a light sand. Time to get dabbing and painting! You can totally be creative with this, just make sure to add pieces of various sizes and colours!

Let everything dry, then add a nice glossy clear coat over the whole table! Use a super fine grit sandpaper to sand away any brush strokes, add another clear coat, and buff with a buffing pad! All of this is optional if you don’t have or don’t mind brush strokes.