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Football Field Coffee Table

Jordan Hwang
Nov 12, 2016
3 min read

My husband and I both graduated from the University of Michigan (GO BLUE!) My husband has always wanted to have a Michigan room in his home, so as soon as we bought our own place, we determined a space where he and his buddies can watch sports, play poker, and it can be all his own. Of course it would be decked out with all Michigan memorabilia, and what better way to celebrate Michigan football, than to have a Michigan football field coffee table!?

We started with this old coffee table that we've had since college. We bought it off a friend for $20 and it was a staple in our living room until we were able to buy a nice grown up coffee table. It was perfect because it was a rectangle. It had a few dings so we filled the divots with wood filler and let it dry before painting it.

I chose to sand it a little bit, just to rough up the surface. I don't know if it was necessary, but I had just gotten my new palm sander and wanted to try it out. Since we are Michigan fans, I needed maize and blue paint colors, as well as a green and white for the field and lines. I found that all I needed were the sample size containers. I used a foam roller to paint the top. Every time I would paint it would come out streaky and uneven. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES! Fill your roller with paint and roll it 2-3 time MAX. The paint will even out. Don't be obsessive like me and keep rolling your brush over the top. I used a paint brush for the legs, but followed the same practice. A lot of paint, a few swipes, and then let it dry to even out.

I used left over latex paint to paint the white yard lines. Based on my table length I decided to do 4 yard lines so I could make them all equal and have decent size end zones. Let's be honest, the end zones is where most of the design is at, so it's the most important. I used blue painters tape to create a space where I could just swipe my white paint down the middle. Be careful when removing the painters tape. I was a little haphazard and ended up needed to do touch ups. Then paint your teams logo in the center of the field, the end zones, and the yard markers. I printed out the logo and taped it to where I wanted it on the table. I took a sharp pencil and traced over it so it left an indent in the table. It gave me some nice outlines so I wasn't painting blindly.

Once everything dried I knew I needed a top coat. I was nervous running a brush of polyurethane over the top of the table. I was afraid it would make some of the colors run together. I chose to use a polycrylic spray. We did 3-4 coats on the top and legs. We were thinking about getting a glass top for it, but it's a bit expensive and probably isn't in the cards for the time being. Either way, I think it really pulls the space together to make for a pretty unique Man Cave!