How to Create an African Coffee Table

Africa is widely known by the vast array of animals the continent contains.

Africa is one of the largest continents on the earth. It is most recognized for the plethora of animals that live there, such as elephants, lions, monkeys and antelope. Africa is home to several different cultures and landscapes, including Arabic, Moor, grasslands and jungle. Creating African inspired decor is not all that difficult if you know what you're looking for. Creating an African inspired coffee table can be as simple or as difficult as you want it to be.

Things You'll Need

• Dark wood coffee table
• Damp cloth
• Glass top
• Glass cleaner
• Paper towels
• Sticky tack adhesive or adhesive dots
• Dried ferns
• Drawn pictures of African animals, landscapes and people
• Scissors
• Tape

Instructions

1. Wipe the top of the dark wood coffee table with the damp cloth. Allow the surface to dry completely. A dark wood is the best color wood to use because it will really help set off your art, and Africa is all about rich grains and colors melded with a soft crème color. You may notice this in face paintings and African art.

2. Clean the glass top with glass cleaner and paper towels. Set aside. Try not to touch the top and bottom surfaces with your fingertips after cleaning it. You can put paper towels under your hands to keep the oils from your fingers off the glass.

3. Cut out all of the pictures you wish to use in your collage. If at all possible, use different sized pictures from large to small, and all different colors. Make an effort to get some of that crème color in your collage.

4. Lay out the pictures on your coffee table and organize them how you wish for them to appear on your coffee table. You want the pictures to be in a cluster and touching. If you have a few small spaces here and there, that's fine to do, but you don't want all the pictures spread out. Also, make sure that you mimic the shape of your coffee table. If your coffee table is square shaped, make your collage square shaped. If your coffee table is oval or circular, make the collage oval or circular.

5. Tape all of the pictures together on the underside of the picture. Do this by picking up two pictures on the outside of the collage and working your way inward. Once the whole collage is attached, set aside where it will not get stepped on or bent.

6. Lay out your ferns across the table. Spread them out so that they are not touching, and they are not all facing the same direction. It is perfectly acceptable to have some hanging off of the table. You want to make them look sporadic and wild. Tape down the ferns with the tape.

7. Lay your collage on top of the ferns and secure the collage to the top of the table with tape. Trim the fern edges to match the edges of your table. You can do this by cutting the ferns off at the edge of the table with scissors. Be careful not to scratch the wood.

8. Apply adhesive dots every 5 to 6 inches around your glass top. Place the top gently and carefully on top of your collage.

Tips & Warnings

• You can find pictures to use in magazines and books. If you would rather use fake ferns and implement different shades of greens, yellows and crèmes, that is fine, especially if your collage is filled with more dark colors than light. Adhesive dots can be found in any arts and crafts store or section of a store near the scrapbooking section.

References

• Contemporary African Art: African Décor
• HGTV: African Inspired Living Room