Thursday, July 18, 2013

Painted Tables

Today was all about painting the tables red... and orange and yellow and green and blue and purple and grey and brown and pink! I've used color titles as a classroom management tool in the art room since I began teaching, but this is the first time the tables are actually the color of their title. 
The colors selected will be the table title. 

This project is something that I've been wanting to tackle since last summer. The first step to this job was to sand the tables.A small electric hand sander was used to sand off the original finish as well as some of the 'stray marks' that the kids had left on the tables. Next, a damp cloth and the shop vac made dust cleanup a breeze. After the tables were ready for paint, my music teacher friend and I covered the sidewalk with paper so the over spray of the paint would not discolor the walkways and then carried the tables outside so we were adequately ventilated. We found it easy to paint the base of the tables by flipping one table on top of another so that the parts that we wanted to paint were more within reach. 
Tables have been prepped by sanding and wiping off all of the dust with a damp cloth.
Our fantastic music teacher is lending a hand!
The entire process only took about five hours for two people. We think the finished product looks really great. The paint seems to soak in to the wood so it should be resilient to the wear and tear of the art room. The wood grain shows through the paint a little and makes them look a little sophisticated. I'm pretty sure they are the most fantastic tables on campus. I'll post photos out them in their final homes in an upcoming post.