Things to Add to Your Epoxy Wood Table + Design Tips

A popular epoxy wood table technique is to encapsulate objects within the epoxy. Some people will use sentimental memorabilia or everyday things like bullet casings, rocks, bottle caps, coins, photos, and more.

Encapsulating and embedding objects in your epoxy wood table is a unique way to show off objects that mean something to you. Depending on the type of material that you’re encasing in epoxy, there are different steps that you should take to guarantee an excellent outcome.

How to Add Things to Your Epoxy Wood Table

When embedding and pouring objects in a river table – a live edge epoxy wood table with epoxy filling in the gap down the middle of the table – you need to start with a bottom layer. This is often called the “sacrificial layer” because it protects your embedded objects from being sanded or leveled out.

To make this bottom layer, pour a layer of epoxy about 1/8” to ¼” thick. After that layer turns hard or tacky to the touch, you can add the items you want to embed to the top of that layer.

The next step(s) you take will depend on the objects you’re embedding in the epoxy. You might find that you want to pour additional thin layers of epoxy to make your objects “float” at a certain height for the final deep pour.

For thin, lightweight objects that epoxy can soak through, for example, photos or newspapers, you’ll need to coat them in quick set epoxy or use a combination of water and glue to seal them before putting them in the river table. This makes it so the epoxy that you pour onto your epoxy live edge wood table won’t soak through them and make them difficult to read or see.

You might also want to secure the items you’re arranging in your epoxy wood table with epoxy before doing your final pour. We recommend using quick-setting epoxy because it blends in with the deep pour epoxy you’ll use at the end.

Avoid using hot glue or other glue because they often turn yellow or amber and can be seen in the final cure. By securing your items before doing the deep pour, you’re ensuring that they won’t float away from their position when you do the deep pour.

While you won’t have to secure heavier objects, like bullet casings and rocks, you’ll still need to coat them in quick setting epoxy to seal and “wet” the surface to keep bubbles from forming around them. You may even need to fill the voids or holes in your items with epoxy to prevent bubbles from forming during the final pour because that’s another way bubbles are created in river tables.

Some Popular Objects to Encase in Your Epoxy Wood Table + Design Tips

Some of the most popular objects that get encased in an epoxy resin table include:

• Leaves and Flowers – Any leaves, flower petals, or flowers that you want to encase in your epoxy wood table need to be thoroughly dried before they’re exposed to the epoxy. If there’s any moisture left behind in the plants, they’ll turn moldy and brown in the epoxy. To dry your flowers, you can press them between two sheets of tissue paper (i.e., napkin) and put them inside a heavy book for five days. You’ll then want to use a combination of glue and water or a thin layer of epoxy to prevent any bubbles from forming and secure the flowers in place in the epoxy wood table before doing the deep pour.
• Newspaper Clippings and Photos – You’ll want to apply a thin layer of watered-down glue to your newspaper clipping or photo before putting epoxy on them. After that, make sure that you secure the objects before applying your deep pour of finishing epoxy.
• Bottle Caps and Shells – These objects are light enough where they need to be secured with epoxy before doing the finishing pour. You’ll also need to fill the voids and holes with epoxy before encasing them in your epoxy wood table because those voids can create bubbles.
• Rocks – Depending on how heavy or big the chosen rocks are, you may not need to secure them before doing the deep pour. You will need to coat them in a thin layer of epoxy before putting them on the epoxy wood table to prevent bubbles.
• Bullet Casings – We don’t recommend or condone putting live bullets in your epoxy wood table because the heat can set off the gunpowder. So, we recommend only using empty bullet casings to prevent any hazards. When using bullet casings, you need to fill the hole because it will create air bubbles. We recommend filling the casing with epoxy before putting them in your epoxy wood table to add weight and prevent bubbles.

Following these design tips will help you skip the frustration when building your epoxy resin river table and allow you to produce a high-quality piece of furniture. You can build any kind of epoxy wood table by encasing objects, including coffee tables, sofa tables, desks, and more. Where you decide to incorporate your epoxy wood table is up to you.

Wrapping Up

You can see from this article that there are several different objects that you can encase in your epoxy wood table, including bullet casings, rocks, photos, and newspaper clippings. What you decide to put in your epoxy wood table is up to you but be sure to follow our guide to help you create the best epoxy wood table possible.

Remember that you need to secure lightweight objects that can float away from their place when the deep pour is done and fill any holes or voids to prevent the creation of air bubbles in your epoxy table. Doing these simple things will help you create the best epoxy table without the frustration of getting air bubbles out of the epoxy or fighting with objects to stay in place.

Now that you know what things to add to your epoxy wood table and some design tips, it’s time for you to create your epoxy wood table. So, what’s stopping you?