Monroe Madness or Masterpiece..

This one is for Sandy.

In the words of Marilyn Monroe;

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” 

I feel like this quote was written for this piece of furniture!! It's been a case of one step forward to take two steps back, but let me begin...

FIRST ATTEMPT

My friend Sandy brought me this little coffee table complete with glass top, and asked me could I paint it in cream and gold for her shop 'Revival'

The top was an old chippy veneer which I tried to take off by sanding, by scraping, and then with white spirits but it hardly seemed to make a dent. Against my better judgement I then whipped out my gold spray paint and began.

After this, I painted the entire table with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint 'Old White' but it was no good as the top surface was uneven and just looked rubbish. I then tried to rub it down with a sponge to bring out the gold...but nah it just wasn't happening! Sorry I didn't have the heart to take a photo of this stage.

ATTEMPT TWO

This time I rubbed all the white off and was left with a thin coat of gold which I left on. Then I painted the legs in a deep glossy black, waxed them and ordered a Marilyn Monroe poster to attach to the top - perfect what with this table having a glass top. I used PVC glue and got to work

EEEEEeeeek. Yikes. Etc. 

I have tried this method before and failed, and I thought there may be the possibility of bubbles BUT LOOK at the lines and wrinkles!!  Any tips on this method from my fellow bloggers would be very much appreciated, especially as we don't have 'mod podge' in Ireland.

THIRD ATTEMPT

If this piece was for me then I may have given up at this point, but as it was for Sandy I kept relatively calm and carried on by peeling all the top off;

Then I went to a local shop and bought the only Marilyn poster that they had, even though I had concerns that the face was too big.. but BOY am I glad I did!

My dad helped me at this stage (thank goodness). We simply cut the picture to size, set it on top, and used his electric screwdriver on four corners to attach the picture and the little black plastic screw caps. No glue in sight!

What do you think?

I just love the pop of pink and ruby red lips!