A few months ago I made a slab coffee table. It was quite an undertaking and I have 4 other articles on this woodworking project. This video is an overview of the entire build process! This video also includes how I did the copper finish on the base and a bit on how I finished the top of the slab. This article is primarily about how I applied the copper finish on the coopered wooden base.
Before I talk about the finish, let me tell you about the other 4 parts of this build!
The first step in the build of this table was to flatten the slab. I made a simple router jig that worked amazingly well!
The second, and most challenging part of building this table was constructing the coopered “Tree Trunk” base. Although it was challenging it was also a lot of fun!
I love carving! This was far and away the largest carving that I have ever attempted. Sculpting and Texturing with angle grinders was both challenging and fun!
How and Why I Inlaid Stars in the Table Top is a bit of a story! It started because the slab was full of worm holes and I wanted to fill them in.
I tried just filling them with epoxy, but it didn’t look right. (I screwed up) Then, in order to cover the epoxy, I decided to inlay stars in those spots.
OK! Now let me tell you about the faux copper finish!
Initially, I wanted the base to have a bronze finish. This was an easy 2 step process. First I applied a base coat of brown, then I dry brushed a high-quality bronze paint across the top of the texturing.
Applying the brown base coat
Completed Bronze Finish
When I was done the base looked exactly the way I had envisioned. It really looked like a piece of bronze! But, when I set the top onto my beautiful bronze table base there was a big problem. The base had a very green tone and the top had a very red tone. While each of them looked great by itself, they looked terrible when they were together!
The greenish bronze base looked wrong with the reddish slab top
So, being the perfectionist that I am, I brushed another coat of the brown base color over the top of the “bronze” and started over!
Applying 2nd coat of brown
I had 4 different paints. First was the brown base coat, I found that I liked Rustoleum’s satin espresso color the best for this. For the metallic’s it was important to use only the highest quality and I chose “Golden” brand acrylics. The first one I used was an Iridescent Bronze. Then I had two copper colors, Iridescent Copper was more reddish and Iridescent Copper Light was more of a gold colored copper.
It is important to use high-quality paint
First I dry-brushed a coat of the more reddish colored copper paint.
Dry brushing the Red Copper color
But the more I applied the more apparent it was that the red was a bit too red. It seemed to have an artificial look to it.
A little bit too red!
I was glad that I bought both copper colors. To “fix” the too red problem I dry brushed just the slightest bit of the more gold colored paint over the top of the red.
Close up of base after finish was complete
It is not as easy to see in the photos, but adding that little bit of the golden colored copper paint made a BIG difference!
I was very happy with the final result!
Completed Table, compare this to how it looked with the bronze colored base!
Check out the accompanying articles about this table
