Ideas for Painting a Nautical Table

Naval Theme

• A naval style looks at home in a more formal room. The sophisticated color palette of navy blue, steely grays, gold and woody browns elevates the table's style. Once you decide on a base color, paint or stencil the tabletop with a large naval embellishment, such as an anchor and rope or a ship steering wheel.

Coastal Theme

• An old-fashioned coastal cottage or lighthouse theme gives your table a rustic charm. Choose lighter colors, such as tan and white. Use a paint treatment that gives your table a distressed appearance so it looks weathered with age. Think about the types of things you might find along an old New England beach, such as clam shells and starfish. Stencil these types of designs around the perimeter of the table. Alternatively, paint the entire tabletop to look like an old shipping map.

Tropical Beach Theme

• Vivid colors give your table the warm, inviting flair of the tropics. Paint the table in a glossy finish in shades of sea foam green, turquoise blue and aquamarine. Get a watery color variation by pouring two shades of paint, such as cerulean and turquoise, side-by-side in a paint pan. Dip the brush so it is loaded half with one color and half with the other. Wiggle the brush as you paint across the top or down the legs to make strokes that are reminiscent of ocean waves. Paint tropical fish in vivid colors on the tabletop, and when they're dry paint on a few coats of glaze to give the impression that you're looking down into the water when you look down at the table.

Sailboat Theme

• A sailing theme allows you to get a little bold with your paint job, and you can stray more from the blues and neutrals with this style. There are two ways to carry out the theme. The first is to paint the top with colorful stripes and designs such as a sailboat sail. Paint the legs of the table a crisp white to show them off. The other way to carry out the theme is to trace and paint a sailboat image on the top of the table. Use colors you like that complement your sailboat image.