Coffee Table Story (or, Easy DIY Coffee Table)

It was early morning.  Cozy on the couch, I was enjoying my green tea, looking through papers for our next Thailand meeting.  I set my mug on the floor- Sprockett immediately walked over and licked the rim.  “Really Sprockett?” I questioned, annoyed.  I thought about how it would be nice to have a table to put my mug on.  And then I considered how lovely it would be to have extra space to spread out my papers.  (While piling important papers on the couch is not ideal, I had become accustomed to it).  We have a rather small house (by American standards anyway), and our old coffee table had become more of a nuisance than a help because of its large size.  So it presently sits in the storage shed collecting dust and preserving memories of days gone by with its tattered corners and loose legs.

I asked myself, "If I could MAKE a coffee table, how would it look?"

This was the beginning of our coffee table story.

 

I immediately searched Pinterest.  There were a million ideas floating around.  The only thing I knew for certain was that I didn’t want to spend money on supplies. I told my husband the plan.  “Yeah, a coffee table would be nice,” he agreed.  I showed him photos online.  We walked outside to take a look at the possibilities.  The great thing about buying a house on a an acre of land?  The previous owners left enough “junk” that it became a treasure trove for us, but not so much that it was annoying.  We found some wood and made a game plan.

We chose scrap wood.  I excitedly dug the old chairs out of storage.  I had picked them up next to a school dumpster the summer before, hoping they would make nice bases for side tables.

We pulled out all the 1 X 4’s.  We arranged them into a striped pattern.  We decided on a size.  Matt got to work.

He cut all the wood the same length.  We decided to have them a bit bigger than the base piece.

He attached the strips to our base.

He drilled from beneath so the screws wouldn’t show on top.  He did this at an angle just to make sure!

Then he flipped it and screwed another row near the seam where our 2 base pieces joined.  (2 pieces were used for no other reason than that is what we had on-hand).

Notice what the wood looks like above.  I liked it because it was old and worn looking.  Some of it still had chipping paint.  We agreed he should sand it a bit.  I forgot what a perfectionist he can be.  I was quite surprised by the outcome… It looks very different!  But, I have to say, I think the wood is really lovely and with a few clear coats of stain, it fits very well in our house!

He attached the legs after the staining was done. 

View from beneath: (He still wants to put an edging all the way around to help hide the base.)

Crazy how nice some old scrap wood can look once it’s sanded and stained, huh?

What DIY projects have YOU been up to?