The coffee table is the perfect companion of your couch and the comfy chairs in the living room. As the couch and chairs provide you the comfort of a lazy Sunday afternoon, the table further enhances the experience by holding your favorite beverages and living room ornaments. A living room without a coffee table is considered incomplete. Make one to define your living room as your home’s primary chamber for relaxation.
Coffee tables come in various designs and patterns to accommodate the numerous themes of today’s living rooms. Some tables are simple, while others are riddled with intricate carvings on the surface and legs. They also come in different shapes and sizes. You can purchase coffee tables at a furniture store or from an online showroom, but they are quite pricey. If you build one, you will get the same quality for half the price.
A coffee table is pretty simple to build. You can either get the materials from a lumber shop or you can disassemble some of your old wooden items. A can of high-grade varnish can always work wonders on seemingly unusable pieces of wood. Just tap the carpenter in you for this do-it-yourself project and you will have your coffee table in no time.
Materials Used:
4 wooden pegs (2 x 4 in) – 10 feet long
hand saw
hammer
nail
sander
varnish
paintbrush
tape measure
wood glue
chisel
Have the Materials Ready
Your first step is to get all the needed tools and materials for your coffee table. You can check your home’s storage area for old wooden furniture. If you have many large wooden structures like cupboards, drawers and cabinets, you can get your wood requirements from them. If not, you can secure your wooden pegs from a lumber shop. As for the tools, you can check your home’s toolbox and see the tools that you currently have. You can go to a hardware center to purchase any tool you lack.
Construct the Coffee Table’s Legs
Once you have all the materials, saw four 16-inch long wooden pegs from your supply of wood. Make sure that all four legs are identical in size and shape. You can use your hammer, chisel and sander to chip-off excess wood and smooth the surface of each leg. Once done, use your chisel to carve out patterns or change the shape of the legs. Do this procedure carefully because a slight error is hard to correct especially because wood is a particularly tough material. When you have formed all four legs, apply varnish to give them a nice sheen.
Build the Table Surface
Get the remainder of your wood supply and form the 35 x 19-inch surface. Use your chisel and sander to properly shape and smooth the wooden pegs. Once done, line the pegs and attach them with wood glue. You can nail some of the pegs together if the wood glue fails to hold the table surface. Get your hammer and chisel to create grooves, shapes and patterns to your table surface. Remember that those patterns should match the patterns that you placed on the table’s legs awhile ago. When you have successfully formed the table surface, apply varnish to give it a fine elegant finish.
Affix the Legs to the Table Surface
Get the table legs and nail them to the corners of the table surface. Be very careful when you do this step. A misaligned nail can easily take out the table patterns or worse, create cracks on the surface and legs. Through precise nail positioning and hammer strikes, you will be able to join each leg to the surface without incurring any damage. Just reapply varnish to the nailed areas if pieces of wood get chipped-off.
Now, your coffee table is finished. Place it between your couch and chairs. You will feel the difference that this simple item can create in your living room.