I have always been a huge fan of painted furniture and a few years ago in a fit of boredom in the evenings after work, I decided to just go wild on an old teacher's side table I had gotten out of the dumpster at a local school. It was still sturdy and sound so with a little sanding it was ready to paint.
I started by making sketches of whatever design floated through my work-weary mind and then getting out all the little bottles of craft paint I had collected over the years.

I wanted something that would make a real statement, in colors that would sing and cheer me up after a long day crunching numbers and this is what developed over the next 6 weeks.
At the time I didn't know about reds and yellows being "transparent" colors, so having to add multiple layers of those colors to get the look I wanted was frustrating. But in the end I was happy with the results and after several coats of varnish it now sits in a corner of my bedroom. So if you have a little old wooden something sitting around and paints hmmmm!