Faux Marble Table Made with Paint Pouring

I’ve a vision for making a faux marble table made with paint pouring for a while. When I did my first pouring medium project, I was hooked!  This is such a fun project for beginners and fluid art is so fun and so addictive! I can’t wait to try this on all kinds of surfaces, and I thought this small table was the prefect start by using acrylic paints and pouring medium and I wanted to share this tutorial with you. FYI, the pouring medium isn’t heat proof, for direct food contact or for outside use. You can mix your own paint pours  or  If you don’t want to mix our own, you can use pre-mixed fluid paints or fluid acrylics too.

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I decided a small side table would be perfect, because it’s really more of an accent piece, instead of something that needs to take a lot of wear and tear everyday. I bought the brass base of this table a few years ago. You know I can’t pass up a bargain, or a project! The top was missing, so we added a wood piece that had just been stained (It was probably supposed to have a marble top to begin with.), and was perfectly functional. I just knew I could bump it up a bit with the faux poured marble top. You can actually paint pour on all kinds of surfaces like this boho bowl.

You can also see how I painted my kitchen island here with a different marbling technique.

I love how it turned out, the paint poured surface has gorgeous layers like real marble! I’m actually going to break this up into two posts, because it is really a picture heavy project, and I want to cover pouring  the sealer on the top coat separately. You’ll want to start by prepping your workspace and gathering your supplies. For your acrylic pour painting, you’ll need: Acrylic or craft paint, paint pouring medium, plastic cups for mixing, a pan to pour over,  plastic sheeting or a tarp, a surface to pour on, a craft stick or plastic spoon to stir with, a gloss finish, titanium white, and medium gray acrylic paint. You’ll also want disposable gloves, and an apron or old clothes. It does get messy! There is a full linked list below.

Before I started my paint pour, I painted my edges white first  with acrylic paint and let them dry. You’ll want to do you paint pouring on a flat, level surface whether you’re using a wood piece or a canvas. if you are doing this on a canvas, it’s best to make sure it’s primed with gesso first for the best movement.

For this project, you’ll need a small table, soft paint brush,DecoArt Pouring Medium, Top Coat and three colors of paints in the Satin Enamels line of paint for durability. The colors are : Satin Enamels Pure White, (light gray)Satin Enamels Smoke Grey  and (dark gray) Charcoal Grey. You’ll also need to protect your surface  like a tarp (I used cardboard), small cups and stir sticks for mixing, and something to pour off the excess paint into such as a disposable pie tin, or baking tray.

How much paint you will need , depends on the size of your surface and if you are doing one or multiple canvases.  My table is about 14 inches by 16 inches, and I made about 1/3 cup total  of light gray paint and Pouring Medium together, 1/4 cup of dark gray, and 1/2 cup of white.

There’s lots of recipes with  paint pouring but for beginners, mix your paints with the pouring medium in a 50/50 ratio. This will give it a good consistency for a good fluid pour. Stir to mix thoroughly. If you are using heavy body acrylics instead of craft paint, or regular acrylic paints, you may need to add more pouring medium to adjust the viscosity.

After mixing your paints, you are ready to pour them into each other. Pour the white on the surface first, then drizzle the light gray into the white in a bit of a circular pattern, then add the darkest gray paint on top of that sparingly.

Pour your paint mixture onto your table top/board into with the acrylic pouring technique called a dirty pour.  This is basically when you pour all of your paint colors our at once. For a true dirty pour, flip the cup over on the surface and lift straight up. When I poured mine, I kind of used a back and forth motion, to get a more linear look for my faux marble made with pouring medium instead of pouring it right in the center.

Gently pick up the board, and tip it side to side, letting it run in a linear pattern, trying to maintain some of the natural “marbling” that happens as a part of the pouring process. Go with the flow too ( no pun intended!) and see where the pattern goes! Let the colors of paint move around to create that marble-like pattern and if you want to make more lines you can gently swirl a palette knife through the paint. If there are any bubbles you can use a toothpick to pop them. If you paint has puddles, tip the board or canvas more or use a palette knife to move the paint a little an then tip it a bit to get it to blend.

Once you have the top the way you like it, and it’s completely covered, place it on a flat surface away from any dust or debris. Remove any drips on the edge with a paint brush in the first hour. Let it sit on a flat to dry for at least 24 hours, in a room with low humidity, where it won’t be disturbed so the paint hardens completely before adding the top coat. For a piece that’s high-use (unlike artwork or a flat canvas) you are going to want to use a top coat like varnish or polyacrylic.

You can see the Top Coat process in this post!

This post is sponsored by DecoArt, opinions are entirely my own.