Here are a few shots of the original ashtray. It was quite tarnished and beat-up.
Beautiful marble inlay and lots of detailed work in the metal.
I was looking for a very small (12″ or smaller) side table to fit in the tiny space between my sofa and wall. The couch sits on an angle and there really isn’t much room, but I wanted a little spot to place a drink. Having no luck what so ever, I decided I needed to think outside the box. I started brainstorming possible bases for a tiny table and quickly thought of a vintage floor standing ashtray. I picked this 
vintage ashtray up for $20 off of Kijiji and was confident it would be perfect. It was one of the easiest upcycing projects ever. I removed the screws that held the handle and twisted the ashtray from the base to dismantle it. This allowed me to remove the small marble piece near the base, clean the stand and then spray paint it all without having to tape off the marble. I chose a basic white spray paint and gave it one coat. For the top, I picked up an oval piece of wood with routered edges from Michael’s and used the 40% off coupon so it only cost me about $10.
I used a fine grain sand paper to ensure the wood had a smooth surface before applying two coats of paint. I recently bought the Benjamin Moore Advance furniture paint in my favourite colour ~ Simply White. The paint goes on and cleans up like latex, but dries like oil paint, so you don’t need to clear coat it. It also has a “flooding” element, so the coat looks nice and smooth. After painting the top, I wasn’t happy with the shade of white on the base of the ashtray stand, so decided to give it a quick top coat of the Simply White using a roller and it too dried beautifully.
To attach the top, I simply placed screws in the holes that previously held the handle in place and screwed on the new table top. I love the detail on the pedestal and base. One of my favourite upcylces! So cute and the perfect size for this space.
