Nintendo Controller Coffee Table

We're rockin' it old school today! Those new gaming systems are nice with their crazy clear graphics but I enjoy the nostalgia from the old 8-bit games and I can never figure out all of those buttons on the new controllers anyway. Awhile back I saw this FUNCTIONAL Nintendo Controller Coffee Table about had a heart attack! So awesome! We don't have an extra $2-4K laying around though. Even if we did I can only imagine how much stuff that my son would manage to spill in it even with the glass covering.

I loved the idea of a coffee table that looked liked an original NES controller though. So I decided to give ours a makeover with some paint. I had all of the supplies on hand too so this was another freebie! Even if I had to buy everything it would still only cost about $20.

Supplies:

Quart Size Paint in Light Gray (I used my custom gray color)

Sample Size Paint in Beluga

Sample Size Paint in California Poppy

Small Can of Polycrylic in Clear Gloss

High-Quality Synthetic Bristle Paint Brush

Small Artist's Paint Brush

Cardstock to make a stencil

Start by giving your table a light sanding so that your paint will stick to it. Use a wet rag to wipe up any dust. As you can see, mine started out with some decorative corner brackets. Half of them were broken though so I just busted them all up.

Paint the entire table light gray. Allow the paint to cure for a couple of days.

 

 

Right click and save the stencils above and print each one out as a full page onto cardstock and cut along the lines with an exacto knife. They are each cut in half so you can just trace one side then flip it over and line it up then trace the other side. The top of my table (not counting the ridges on the sides) is 47 1/2 x 19 1/2 so depending on the size of your table, you may need to shrink or enlarge your stencil. You will also want to trace out a 2" border all the way around the edge of your table.

On the middle lines, the top and bottom one shouldn't be curved on the corners so you will want to start with the stencil pushed up a little higher than your border so that you cut those corners off like in the photo below.

I started out using contact paper and just painting over the stencil. Unfortunately it bled through so the line wasn't very clear (shown above) and I was worried about pressing it down too hard and peeling the other paint off when I removed it. So I ended up just tracing around the stencils with a pencil and painted around the lines with a small artist's brush. The contact paper also kept curling and getting mangled when I tried to lay it down. If I did this again I would definitely go with a cardstock stencil.

For the painting, I started with the middle lines using a medium gray that I made by mixing the light gray and black. Once that has dried move on to the black and red. Make sure to leave the light gray showing around the buttons and a 2" border all around the edge of the table. Do a second (or even a third) coat of all of the colors until they are bold and even looking.

Let all of the paint dry for a day or two then start coating it with the Polycrylic according to the directions on the can. They recommend using at least three coats. I ended up using 8 coats just because my family can be pretty rough on our coffee tables and I wanted to make sure that it was extra protected. You can re-coat every two hours and each one only takes a few minutes to do so that part wasn't too bad. 

The directions also said that you can start using your furniture like normal after 24 hours. Again, I wanted to be sure we wouldn't mess up all of my hard work so I waited five days just to be safe.

It's such a fun addition to our living room! When I originally started planning the decor for our new house, I was thinking about doing everything mid-century-modern. However, once I actually started decorating, it become more of an eclectic mix of whatever the heck I like at the moment. :)

Other tutorials pictured above: Shattered Mirror Art and Mr. Potato Head Planter

I faced the table out for all of the pictures but it will more likely be facing the couch so that people can pretend to play it while they are sitting there. Shelby likes to do the cheat code for Contra every time he walks by it. Lol!

Nooo! Don't die, Mario!!!

The answer to your question is: Yes. I am a huge dork. With all of the tattoos and piercings people often mistakenly assume that I am cool. Hahahahaha! Fooled ya!

Being a dork is more fun than trying to be cool anyway. :)