Thanks for all the questions and love for my new mixing table. She really is a sexy beast. (Scroll down for my process and measurements)
I like a lot of artists have been using a simple 16x20 safety glass palette and I always run out of room and can’t see the bigger color story I am building. Very limiting and frustrating. For years I have been seeing pictures of large expanses of mixing area in people’s studios and lusting after them.
This was a table I had built for me about 15 years ago by a neighbor. It served as a work table and had a repurposed table top from an old World Market dining table. Then is sat around for quite a while. The safety glass top of the table is actually an old window pane that we took out of our house. We did some remodeling about 8 years ago and because the windows were all safety glass I had the contractor free them from the frames and set them aside for me.
So finally I took one of the large panes and spray painted the back which white enamel spray paint. It was a stretch of warm dry weather and I did it outside. Not only was it safer for me but is it smelly for a few days after. Once the spray paint had cured I put large -3 inch diameter- felt pads on the corners of the table and a couple felt dots-a half inch each- along each edge. I do not want the glass to move or scratch. I used the felt pads that you would put under the feet of a sofa so it doesn’t scratch the floor.
Everything in my studio, and I mean everything- easels, chairs, tool chests, flat files- everything is on casters so that I can move the furniture myself. Two problems I have discovered when purchasing casters: First is buying ones that are not sturdy enough hold the intended piece of equipment. Casters are weight rated and I always, always now buy ones that can support more than I believe the furniture weighs. This is really important because I want to move the furniture with ease and not fight the casters, even though I have a cement floor. The second problem, which is easily avoided is making sure that the plate on the top of the casters is appropriate size wise to the base of the legs of the piece of furniture. A 3 inch plate on a 2 inch furniture leg simply won’t work. Keeping these two factors in mind is critical. I buy my casters usually from a giant Seattle based online retailer. DM me if you want the specific link.
Another critical element to this is using safety glass. Safety glass is engineered to break safely into pellets rather than shards, so if it does shatter or break you are not going to slice yourself. You’ll have a mess, that’s almost unavoidable but you won’t be in physical danger. So how do you know if that piece of glass is safety glass? The easiest way is to look for the “bug” on it. All safety glass has a small -maybe a quarter inch- etched looking imprint in one corner stating that it is indeed safety glass. Please make sure that you are using this type of glass regardless of size, I don’t want you getting hurt and neither do you.
So I put beefy casters on an old table, used an old safety glass window spray painted white (or you could go gray if that is your preference) on one side, slapped some thick adhesive felt on the table itself and viola- the table of my dreams.
The table measures: base is w32”x h34”x t36”
The safety glass measures: 42”x48”
The casters measure: 5”
Ping me with questions if you have them.