It is Getting Leaf-E Around Here

Terrible title I know but I love it. I haven’t done a whole lot of decorating for fall yet but I did make a wreath for our front door. I started with this tutorial for a leaf covered monogram that I had pinned on Pinterest but used mod podge instead of spray glue.
 
I have a small collection of Letter Es around the house, so for this project, I used one that had gotten broken and glued back together. The grapevine wreath and the lace are leftovers from the wedding I did this spring, so all I needed were the leaves. I got my leaves from Michael’s and they are dried oak leaves that have been dyed. I think the fact that they once hung on a tree shows in the paper-y perfect textures and veins.
 
The letter I used is pretty heavy and much heavier on the left side due to the nature of the letter E. This makes it tilt and spin when hung from the grapevine wreath. I would recommend using a letter that is made of paper mache or something light so that the difference between sides isn’t so much. I would also recommend using a letter that is flat like in the tutorial rather than 3 dimensional and thick like mine. It was difficult getting the leaves to wrap around the edges and cover all the corners sometimes.
 
My front door area can kind of be a tunnel of red. I was afraid fall colors would just make it worse so I tried to use more of the yellow leaves than the red and orange. I think it  balances out alright.

Marble Top

For some reason when I say that, I hear that old fifties lollipop song. Marble top. Marble top! Ooooh marble marble top! Now that this is stuck in your head.

I bought this cute little table for $4 at my favorite little thrift store. It wasn’t priced so I ask and waited to hear “$20”, hoped to hear “$10”, and couldn’t buy it fast enough when I heard “$4”.
The table came with a bad brown paint job but was real wood and marble so it was definitely full of potential.


In January, I strip the paint off just the top using Citristrip.I have never stripped the paint of something but I was pleased with how the Citristrip worked. The only problem is you have to wait 9 months before you can stain. (Not really. I was just looking for an excuse. Did you buy it?)


I stained the top using an opps stain from Sherwin Williams. I like the warm red tones to it. The bottom is painted using Glidden’s “Candlelight” that I got when they were do a mass free paint giveaway. Computer monitors are a tricky thing when looking at paint colors but it turned out to be a soft creamy white. Thanks Glidden!


The hardware was covered in goopy brown paint so I used a combination of sand paper and Brasso to shine them back up. The sand paper left slight scratches but I found that if I increase my grit as high as possible the scratches became more of an aged polished look.

Cost Breakdown: 
Table: $4
Citristrip: $12
Stain: $2? I’m not sure but it was cheap since it was an opps and I used hardly any.
Paint: Free! Thanks Glidden!
Brasso: $3.50
Total: $21.50 but most of that is the large quantity of Citristrip that I used about a third of so you could say $13.50. Let’s say $13.50! Whoop!

I’ve had this table up on Craigslist for a while and I haven't been able to rehome it yet. I thought I was going to get to put it in a booth at a monthly market but now that has fallen through. So for now, it continues to sit in my house, in the way, like it has for almost a year now… I wish I had a better place to sell these things.

Update: It finally SOLD!

Partying here!