My best friends table

My best friend had a plain little table that she wanted to spruce up a little. She asked me if I could paint it so I was like "sure, can I do whatever I want to it?" And she said yes! Yipee. I wasn't sure what I was going to do- just like always when I start a project. I sanded it, primed it and painted it blue. Then I decided it needed something else so I put a white border around the edges. Still not enough. I had been wanting to try a harlequin pattern so I figured now was a good time to try it out since I didn't have to worry about trying to sell it. I didn't have a pattern so I cut out a little diamond shape and then traced them- one by one- onto the table. Very time consuming. I'm sure there is a much easier way, but I tend to make things difficult. Needless to say, the pattern isn't perfect, but I'm satisfied with it for being my first attempt. Afterwards I distressed and antiqued it with a stain rubdown. Here is a before:

Yeah, I'm a little photo challenged. I actually have a really nice camera that I'm sure can do some really amazing things, but I have no attention span and I can't get past the first page of an instruction manual. I tried to use Picasa too, but it just ended up annoying me, so now I'm just using the plain ol' straight from the camera shots. I wish I could have some awesome photographer come take the pics for me. I'm terrible at staging too, but here are some after shots:

Unfortunately it's totally not her style, but I like it. She isn't into the whole distressed french country cottage shabby chic look at all. Not sure how it is going to fit into her modern look, but I had fun and I'm glad that she gave me free rein. Thanks for looking!!
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