BE MADE: My New Coffee Table

My poor husband. I'm so glad he gets me and just lets me do me. I doubt there'd be anyone else who would put up with someone spending hours refinishing -- or rather, definishing -- a coffee table and hunting for months for castors the perfect size for these coffee table legs, only to decide it needs to be replaced just a little over year later.

Because that's what I did.

And he let me. (: Lucky girl I am!

It all started with these legs.

Aren't they some sexy legs?! I found them one day in my landlord's stash of junk he keeps and he let me have them. For what purpose, I had no clue. But they were so mid-century mod, so sleek, so non-traditional, that I had to have them.

For a while, they just sat outside waiting to be used, waiting for new life. I finally thought I would make them into a bench of some sort because I felt like I needed one in my living room. But then I did some rearranging and found I no longer needed a bench.

So the legs kept waiting.

Until I started putting together this post on the Lucite & rustic trend. And that lovely light bulb of mine went off.

Not long ago we bought a new rug for our living room. I'm trying to lighten things up in my house, and the rug was a great way to start.

But I also loved the pattern and color that the rug had and wanted to see more of it, and I felt like my existing coffee table covered it up.

I am also seeing my style tastes moving more towards a cleaner, modern look, and so my coffee table wasn't cutting it in that respect either.

So between the Lucite & rustic post, and my desire for a glass-top, more modern coffee table, this beauty was born in my head!

Making it a reality was a little more difficult. But isn't that how light bulbs work, haha!

I'm going to more or less let the pictures do the talking. This DIY is unique because of the legs. I can't really tell you where to go out and buy a set to make a table exactly like this one. This was me making do with what I had. But I'm sure a quick online search could produce the perfect set of legs. Maybe even one of these sites.

Anyhoo, since I was going sleek with the legs and the glass top, I wanted some texture for contrast, so I opted to make my table top frame from OSB board. I've never really worked with this material before, so I wasn't entirely sure this was going to work out. But I forged on...

I cut a piece 24"x24" then rounded the corners. I sanded the edges really good, too, since this is basically millions of pieces of wood sticking whichever way they please and I didn't wanna get stabbed by one walking past my table.

I wanted the glass to sit in the OSB rather than on top of, which would make it more secure, and also create a more level surface. So hubby routed out a lip for the glass to sit in.

image via instagram: it was rough work cleaning off all that rust!
fist time using a grinder! woo hoo! power to women with power tools!

My original thought was to clean the rust off the legs and paint them black again. But once I started grinding off the rust, the original metal starting coming through in this great charcoal patina. So I decided to grind down as much as I could to the original metal then apply a clear coat. In places there's still a bit of rust, and still a bit of the painted/coated finish, which adds so much character than just painting the legs would have.

I really really wanted my table to be just the OSB frame with glass top and these awesome legs. But attaching the top to the legs wouldn't allow that to happen. You see, the holes in the legs hit smack dab in the middle of my piece of glass. And I really didn't want to drill holes in my glass. Too much risk there. So I added in these two pieces of flat trim that I screwed to the legs, then attached the top to. Originally I had thought to run the trim pieces perpendicular to the legs (but aligned with the cross pieces on the legs) but that was too obstructive of my glass, so I ran them parallel.

Isn't that texture fabulouso?!

It is about half the width of my old coffee table, which makes me love it even more. Proportionally, it works so much better, not to mention functionally.

This was one of those pieces I saw in my head but wasn't sure how I was going to get to the end result. But I finally got there, and I love it! And if you used a set of the hairpin legs, you could attach them in each corner of the OSB frame (or plywood or plank...anything could be used for the top), and you'd really have a clear top.

Please ignore the current state of the chair in the background. She's my baby. She's the most comfortable chair you'd ever put your butt in. But she's in need of a makeover, I know, which is most assuredly happening in the near future! No chair abuse happening here! (:

You may have noticed in the background of the interior shots some differences, things in places they shouldn't be. Like I mentioned before, change is coming. And change is good!

Be sure to check out the post that inspired it all: {Trending} Lucite + Rustic!

You can see my other post on trends here.
And you can read my previous post here!

ta-ta for now!