train table makeover

This train table is eight years old, and has seen a lot of love from my oldest son who was mega obsessed with Thomas the Train. However, my youngest, who is now four barely played on this table with the trains. I normally found him battling tiny soldiers or stomping his dinosaurs through the tracks.

So I decided to give this table a new life.

How do you do that to a eight year old table that has been beat on by trains {and soldiers & dinosaurs}? This table visually is not much to look at... my children have peeled off the train image's protective film... and even the train image is a few spots. This table even has some bite marks!

But the table is still standing strong, and the drawer still works perfectly. So after a fresh coat {okay maybe a few!} this little table will maybe not be as good as new, but will get a fresh new start

...as a Lego table!

My boys had a little disagreement as to what color to paint it. My oldest wanted a dark gray, and my youngest wanted navy blue. So I made my attempt to mix the two and went with midnight blue. I was just happy to keep it in the neutral palette. 

I used Rust-Oleum's Chalked paint. I got a dark tint base and had it tinted to the midnight blue.

I also grabbed the matte clear topcoat. 

It took about 3 light coats to cover the train image. 

However, I did hit a snag with the half peeled protective film. 

Before painting, my oldest son and I attempted to peel all of it - but it wasn't happening. So I just lightly sanded over what I was and wasn't able to remove. Well after the third coat of paint a realized that the areas that had the film was going to be darker than the areas without it because the areas without was actually soaking in the paint, where the film areas were not.

So I went ahead and did my clear topcoat and it certainly helped. I did a second coat of the clear coat and the difference is barely noticeable. Whew! 

However, if I were to do it again, I would have taken a hand sander to remove the entire film.

I got two sets up these Lego plates when Amazon just so happened to be doing a lightning sale on them. I attached them with gorilla glue. And then finished the table off my replacing the tattered blue rope that was previously there with a piece of jute string. 

This transformation from train to lego table cost was about $75.

Other lego tables I found were over $100, were also smaller {like half the size}, and didn't use actual Lego plates {there were compatible plates}. Plus I am giving this much loved train table some continued life :)