making over a $5 table

I found this table for $5 at Mod Mood, a very cool consignment store in Wheat Ridge
Here's the table:

It's not bad, but the laminate top was too ugly for me. I decided to try decoupage. I looked up some tutorials on the internet and bought some Modge Podge. You should know-these tutorials led me astray. First, I painted the table with an off-white/Ivory high gloss spray paint. Then I tore out pages of a book. I used a spray adhesive (wrong) to keep the pages in place and trimmed around the edges. It looked AWESOME.

Then I applied the Modge Podge (wrong) and all the pages immediately wrinkled and bubbled. It looked terrible.

So I tore it up.

I tried again (I found another tutorial-also wrong). This time, I applied Modge Podge to the table, put the pages down, modge podged the top-results that were even worse. I ripped it up again. I made another trip to Hobby Lobby and talked to someone who had done decopoge before. To my surprise, she told me not to use Modge Podge, instead to by this laquer called "Triple Thick". So I made a 50/50 mix of Elmer's glue and water. I would paint that onto the back of a page, lay it down on the table and do that again and again until the table was covered. Then I applied the Triple Thick and left it alone. Here's the result:

There are still bubbles, but I'm going to live with it. The Triple Thick stuff leaves a nice hard surface, I think spilled yogurt and applesauce will clean up easily from the table. And if not, I can re-do it again!