craftgrrl | i finally finished something!

Here's my new coffee table! I've been trying to finish it for a few weeks, and I finally got around to it. It was a pain in the butt!

But here it is in all its glory:

Map of Spain/Portugal on top, spray-painted black sides/legs, acrylic waterproof coating.
Magazine shown for size comparison.

PLEASE ignore the mess in the background and on the floor! I've been crafting like a madwoman and haven't made time to clean. :)

map detail!

EDITED:: How To Make Your Own

Things needed: Coffee table (check out garage sales or thrift stores!), black paint (I used spray paint), a map, spray adhesive (I used Krylon), mod podge, Future floor finish, scissors, exacto knife, iron (really)..

Paint your table! I just painted the sides, bottom edges, the legs, and a -little- border around the edges on the top side. The table I used has detachable legs, so I took them off and spray-painted them separately. If you use spray paint, you should probably sand your table. My table had a sort of glossy finish, but I didn't sand it, so a little bit of the paint got scraped off when I fought to hide it under my futon before I finished it (I just touched it up with a sharpie).
Take your map and cut it a little bit bigger than the table top-- having it at about the right size makes it a lot easier to work with. Then iron the crap out of it on both sides, making sure you get all the creases out.
Working from one end of the table to the other, completely cover a section of the table with the spray adhesive and put the map down on it-- make sure you keep it really flat and re-stick it if you have any bubbles. The spray adhesive is pretty forgiving before it dries (maybe 15 minutes?). NOTE: use way more adhesive than you think you need! I had a couple of air bubbles hiding under the map after it dried because I didn't use enough adhesive, so I just ironed them out and worked with it until the map stayed flat. :)
Once the map is glued down and totally dried, you should take your scissors or knife (i found that the exacto knife worked best) and trim up the edges of the map so that they are flush with the edge of the table. Iron out any messes before you do this!
Once you have trimmed the edges, go ahead and slather on mod podge to coat the whole thing (If you're worried it might wrinkle, try using mod podge for paper), I found that any small wrinkles that showed up could be rubbed out with my paintbrush just before it finished drying. Again, you should probably work from one end to the other, to make sure that you cover everything.
After the Mod Podge has dried (it's okay if it's still a bit tacky, this part will fix that), get your Future floor finish and go over the table with it. It will leave a nice glossy finish on it, and you'll probably be able to see the brush strokes when it's dry (which I happen to like). When it dries (maybe 10 minutes or so), cover it in the floor finish again, and again, and maybe again. I'd recommend three our four quick coats of it (make sure it dries in between coats!). This floor finish should make it waterproof if you coat it well. If you find any wrinkles forming when you coat it with the floor finish, don't fret - they'll ease up as it dries, and should go away completely!
Now just wait impatiently for it to dry, and ta-da!

PLEASE steal my idea, but make sure you post pictures! :)