09.25.2009
Little while back I decided to make a new coffee table for our living room. I had seen similar design and figured I can do the whole thing myself. With the help of my friend Ahemd, we managed to build it in 3 weeks (part time of course).
Few features about the table:
- The main part is about 8 inches off the ground, the second part – the bridge – is about 17.
- The bridge is removable and covered with glass. My intention was to have it so I can remove it and put it in front of the couch and keep the laptop on it so it wouldn’t cook my legs every time I want to work in front of the TV.
- The main part has 2 drawers. One on each side. If you check out the pix below, you’d see them a bit more in detail.
- The bridge is also made out of wood and is painted with high gloss white latex paint
- The main part is original wood color and is only covered with Polyurethane to protect and give it a bit shinier look.
Now if you are ever inspired and want to try your hand at building one similar a few tips and trick.
- The plywood is 3/4 inch and very strong and has a great top layer.
- We made 45 degree cuts on all 4 sides of the top and sides to create a very seamless and clean cut look.
- To get the wood, you don’t have to look far. Home Depot has sheets of this plywood for 50$ (ish) but i managed to get it from the as is section cut up for about 12$, so check out their scrap wood section when your looking.
- If you end up buying the wood from them, if you don;’t have a table saw at home I strongly recommend getting them to cut the pieces for you; they charge something like 1$ per cut, but its all worth it. You don’t want to make these difficult cuts by hand.
- Sand the wood properly. I used 60, then 150 and then 220 grit sand paper to get the surface of the wood almost reflective.
- Get a sander. I have an orbital sander that I got for 14$ from Walmart and it works excellent. The sander helps getting the wood in a very smooth state.
- You never know what your guests will do to the table, so put a nice and strong skeleton in it.
- I got the wood for the skeleton from HD also. 99c for 8 feet and since it has to go inside the table I didn’t care if it is pretty or not.
If you are looking at this and you like it so much that you want to build this exact one, feel free to drop me a line and I can give you some plans to start you off. Check out the following pix to see a little bit more of the guts and the glory inside the table.
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Jen Lau on 09.28.2009
Very nice work.. reminds me of my coffee table.. great job.. can you make me one.. hee hee