All of these occasional  tables have been refashioned from  something that already exists. What exactly is an occasional table? One that could be used by the bedside or in the hall or a coffee table. I suppose what they have in common is that you can put something on them. Perhaps this shouldn’t be encouraged as it often leads to accumulating things you don’t want or need, however that aside, I hope  you will find something that grabs your attention and inspires you.

1.When I first saw this  bedside table in a junk shop, it was plain ugly and crying out to be rescued. A coat of paint, some photocopied and enlarged images, that were then hand painted and decoupaged onto the piece of furniture resulted in what you see above.

2. A wooden  Ikea bench has had its legs painted black, a seat  fashioned from a mattress. This was then covered in  material salvaged an old velvet curtain,  dyed in Dylon goldfish orange machine dye. It was topped with a slim cushion was made from an old sun faded kelim.

3. I found an old beer stained mahogany pub table  in a junk shop in Cowes Isle of Wight. I purchased the old sailing charts at the same time. The table was sanded and then painted black and the charts were cut to size and stuck in place and then finished with a clear mat varnish.

4What do you do when you find an old Covent garden vegetable cart? You turn it into an occasional table by turning it on its side, make   a shelf for the centre and screwing  on some castors. You they paint the front edges with florescent paint.

5. This table has been customized using  paint. The wooden fold up table was first sanded so that the paint would stick. The legs were then sprayed with Valspar copper paint. The top of the table was painted using blackboard paint. A perfect hallway  table for your phone with a place on which to take messages.

6. An asymmetric table was created from a rectangular table which had its legs painted grey and a new asymmetric top was cut  from mdf that was then screwed to the original table. The top was then painted pale pink.

7. By halving the legs of a  table and painting the short remaining legs black you have the start of this padded table. To create the padding an Ikea baby mattress was cut to size and then it was covered in a butterfly patterned linen which was fastened into place using a staple gun.

8 We have all seen pallet tables, but  this one is particularly successful. It was partially taken apart and then reassembled with the addition of some blocks of wood to make it higher and make room for some existing drawers found on a skip.It was painted with watered down white emulsion and then heavy duty castors with breaks were added underneath to the four corners.

9. A tiled coffee table was created by adding a lip to the edge of an existing table  to hold  the tiles in place and to give a neat finish. White tiles were decorated using ceramic pens.  The table was then painted deep grey and the tiles stuck in place.

10. Before being covered in a contemporary geometric wallpaper this bedside table with drawers was a yellowing faux wood effect with old fashioned handles. The paper was cut to size and then stuck in place using PVA glue. To finish it was given a coat of mat varnish.