" I Could Make That" - The Coffee Table

Coffee tables can get expensive. I once read that a coffee table is one of the first pieces of furniture you should look to save on and focus on finding at the thrift store or a garage sale or on the side of the road after a big move out day (August 15 to my fellow Badgers!). The one I owned was ready to fall apart and Bob's was way too big and tall so we figured we'd have to add a new coffee table to our expenses budget.

Unless. . .we saw Bob's coffee table in half, shorten it and paint it!

Here's what we started with: a square, black table with 4 removable glass inserts.

We (and, from here on out, though I say "we" you should assume I mean "Bob" because all I did was take pictures) borrowed my brother-in-law's sander and sanded all the black paint off:

Then we determined how high the seats of the couch we had ordered would be and cut the legs of the coffee table down. Our seats would be at 18" so we cut the legs to 15". Next step was sawing the coffee table in half!


After sanding down all edges, we bought a few L brackets and wood glue to attach the legs from the discarded side to the ends of the side we were keeping.

We put weight on the coffee table overnight to get the wood glue to harden and secure the legs. However, we finished the coffee table before our move and didn't let our movers know it needed to be carefully moved - because the L brackets are only on the interior two sides, the outside legs cannot withstand too much bending. One of our legs loosened during the move so we need to paint over where the paint line broke. If anyone has a better suggestion for making those legs stronger please let me know! We were hesitant to put any new screws through the legs based on the existing dowels that we had cut in half.

The fun part was picking out the paint color! Our walls in the new living room are blue and our couch is a light custard color. We went with Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint in Poppy Seed for a nice complement to the room. Behr Ultra is primer and paint in one so no need to buy primer. If you are doing a big job like the walls of your house you will see some savings using this paint!

And Voila. . .the finished product!

Shared on todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com!