Upcycle An IKEA Salad Bowl Into A Beautiful Faux Stone Table

Have you ever looked at a gorgeous piece of furniture and thought, "I could make that?" Then you're in good company here. With DIY projects, you can elevate your home with impressive furniture without shopping at upscale stores. For example, there are several ways to make the perfect DIY coffee table. One of our latest obsessions was shared by TikTok creator @realluciaparis, who shows how to craft an elegant faux stone table using simple IKEA salad bowls.

So how does a salad bowl become a table? The process is quite similar to the viral IKEA wooden bowl hack that created the spherical coffee table. Two wooden salad bowls are glued together at the rim to form spherical legs. The spheres are then placed beneath a glass top to form the table base. The IKEA BLANDA MATT bowls are made from bamboo. And while the bamboo gives the bowls an appealing rustic woody look, in this faux stone table project, the bowl's surface gets coated to create the textured stone effect.

Start by covering your working area with old newspapers because things might get messy. Next, create two spheres by gluing pairs of salad bowls together to form the table legs. To do this, apply heavy-duty adhesive glue like J-B Weld ClearWeld Epoxy all around the rim of each salad bowl, then attach each pair of bowls together, making sure to align the top and bottom bowls well so as to form perfectly-shaped spheres. Leave to dry.

To create the faux stone effect, there are two ways you can go about this. The first way is plastering the bowl balls with skim. You can use ready-mix plaster to do this. Apply the plaster all over each globe using a putty knife. Don't worry about doing a neat job at this point since you'll smoothen the spheres afterwards. And besides, that rough texture will also help create the faux stone look. After that, use sandpaper to smooth the surface of the spheres. Once again, we aren't going for a perfectly smooth finish, so don't stress. Finally, you can use textured paint to enhance that stone look, or spray paint the spheres with Rust-Oleum Stone Creations Spray Paint, instantly attaining a beautiful stone color. Once the paint is completely dry, seal it with a clear matt sealer.

The other way to create the faux stone effect on the spheres is to try the baking soda painting technique for a textured-matte look. This is the easier option, requiring only a mixture of baking soda and acrylic paint to create a textured finish. The baking soda thickens the paint to create that beautiful rough appearance similar to stone.

The last step is to attach a glass table top on top of the two ball feet — something like this Btikita Rectangle Tempered Glass Table Top. First, place the glass on top of the two spheres to determine proper positioning and balance. Next, remove the glass top and apply the heavy-duty adhesive glue on the upper flat surface of each sphere. Place the glass on top of the legs and allow it to set. Give it time to dry and place a weight on top to ensure proper adherence. The result is a stylish table that can rival something out of a high-end designer store.

When it comes to customizing your faux stone table, one easy option is to go for a vibrant color for the spherical feet so they stand out. Perhaps rust, gold, or even black. You could also decide to give the legs an aged, vintage look and feel by applying an antiquing glaze at the very end.

Now, while this DIY glass table works great as a coffee table, you can also turn it into a stunning modern entryway table with the same IKEA salad bowls. In that case, it would be better to have taller legs by attaching another sphere on top of each ball leg and then using a narrow table top. This project can also inspire other creative uses for IKEA salad bowls, such as a modern bedside table.