Toadstool Table
*The following post may contain affiliate links which I earn a small commission from. Thank you!*
I knew I had to make our own toadstool table to second we started designing our playground! I looked for inspiration and ideas and quickly realized there wasn’t much information or examples out there!
I had so many people send me the toadstool furniture that Cass Make Home made and after thinking for weeks on how to do it I ended up following her method with a couple changes of my own!
The inspiration I ended up using was this image! I love how her toadstool table turned out and that’s how I wanted mine to look.
If you prefer a video tutorial here’s a reel from my Instagram on the whole process!
I began by stopping into AtHome to get my table base which was a $30 planter that is tall, skinny, and slightly tapering. This was my first time going into AtHome and I can’t believe I hadn’t been in there before! I would defintiely recommend them since I looked at Walmart, Home depot, Lowes and a few smaller local shops that didn’t have what I was looking for.
Next, I got my table top supplies at Home Depot which was three wooden discs for $17.50 each measuring 2ftx2ft.
I got home and did a fit test to see if I liked the spot, height, and size of my table! I gave it a thumbs up and got to work!
My main supplies were:
Wood filler ( was later told to use bondo instead)
Off white Spray Paint
Foam Paint brush (I liked using this for the top so there were no brush lines)
Regular/Craft Paint Brush (this gives your table base lines/texture)
Mushroom Base Paint Sample: Accessible Beige
Red Paint Sample: No More Drama- Behr
White Paint Sample: Greek Villa
Screws 2” or 2 1/2” (I used about 10)
Of COURSE I knocked over and spilled the red paint all over the playground right before I sat down and made a giant tear in my favorite dress! I’m such a clutz sometimes and had to keep going from being sad about it haha
I got all my paint ready on my rinky dinky paint station using an old piece of plywood and my work horses that worked really well!
I have so many paint samples that I wanted to use what I already had as much as possible.
I used the 123 primer and then this off-white spray paint that I already had in an off-white creamy color.
Then, I used my thick paintbrush to brush a rough layer of accessible beige in up & down then diagonal brush strokes. I brushed some brown and green in places to to give it dimension.
Then, I used my liquid nails to attach one of my wood pieces to the table base. *This didn’t end up working well for me so we ended up screwing in screws later.*
Then I used more liquid nails to layer the other two discs, clamped them down together, and still had to end up putting in about 6 screws going up through the bottom and that worked great!
Time to get rid of those grooves! I used my hands for this since I couldn’t find my putty knife and I think it was actually easier this way! If you don’t mind the feeling of clay or playdough that’s all it felt like but I had more manipulation and control.
After letting the wood filler completely dry I went to start sanding and the top popped off so Dallin put in a piece of wood so the screws wouldn’t go through, and put in two long wood screws.
Next Dallin got our reciprocating saw and I instructed him as he cut since I was asking for a funny thing. I had him take out chunks of the table top that were just along the top rim not the bottom rim.
Basically, just a small groove that can be sanded and smoothed out.
I sanded and smoothed out the first one and thought it already looked so much better and then we made 4 more “grooves” so 5 total. I sanded the entire thing really well. I ended up doing one heavy layer of wood filler, then a light second layer, and finally a touch up layer just to get small cracks.
I wiped the whole table top down and painted it with 123 primer and waited an hour to dry before painting my color!
Next, I painted my table top the “No more Drama” color by Behr and did a pouring effect! I poured it on the table and used my foam brush to move it around like a glaze. That made it VERY smooth and left no brushstrokes. It also made it so I didn’t have to do 5 layers of paint haha.
I did a vote on my instagram if I should do small polkadots or large polkadots and the vote was definitely in favor of larger polkadots. I agreed I think that made it look more toadstool-like!
I tried a couple different ways to get my polkadots. I started with a round sponge and ended up hating that so then I used a roller and didn’t love it but it did the trick, then finally touched it up with a small craft paintbrush.
Here’s how it looked after the painting and before the final top coat! I got an oil based top coat but that can turn your white yellow so I should have gotten the water based and needed to run to the store first before continuing.
As you get to know me you’ll find that I love anything that’s creative and whimsy so I just couldn’t pass up doing a fairy photoshoot with my cuties!
Here are some links to what I used or similar to what I used!
This table is still one of my favorite projects I’ve done! The toadstool table might be moved around from our DIY playground or next to our whimsy bunkeds and can be used for tea parties or anything our imaginations can come up with!
Thank you for following along, friend! Drop any questions or comments below and I can’t wait for you to make your own!
xoxo,