DIY Coffee Table

Our DIY weekend was a complete success, and after only two days of working (primarily on Justin's part) we have a brand new coffee table! Check this gorgeous thing out.

If you remember my post from Friday, I was torn between three very similar designs of coffee tables, and this is the one that I chose.

With the Zuo 'designer' version of this table priced at $480 regular ($367 on sale), I'm pretty happy with the $75 in supplies that this cost us!

The overall building of the coffee table was left up to none-other-than Justin. I shared the photo inspiration & the dimensions with him, helped him pick out the wood at Home Depot and told him I'd take care of all the painting and staining. And he went about his way.

We started with the legs.

We bought 30 feet of 2" x 2" in Poplar. At Home Depot, they had them pre-cut in shorter pieces, so we were able to transport them home much easier.

After cutting all the 2" x 2"s to size, Justin laid out the sides, glued and clamped them in place - using a nail gun to secure all the pieces in place.

Justin continued with all the legs, then secured them the same way (glue, clamp, nail) and put a squaring block (those triangle things in the corners) for added support & help to ensure that the legs are all "square" with each other.

After filling all of the nail holes with filler, letting them dry, then sanding it down smooth, it was then my turn to take the legs and make them pretty.

I chose to spray paint them with metallic spray paint to give the illusion of looking like metal (way cheaper & easier for us than using real metal). I used Rust-oleum Semi Gloss Protective Enamel in grey for the first coat. Then Rust-Oleum Hammered in dark grey for the final two coats.

In the meantime, Justin worked on the top slab of wood, which I didn't get a good picture of it on it's own. This square piece of wood was made out of about 10 individual 1" x 4"s, also of Poplar. We had these pieces of wood laying around the garage, so they cost us $0!

Justin laid them all out so he avoided the larger knots in the wood, glued them together and clamped them overnight to make sure it was a strong hold.

The next morning, he cut the slab down to fit flush with the base using a circular saw, then sanded it down to be smooth.

Then it was my turn again, to do a couple coats of stain (I chose Natural colored wood stain by Varathane) and a coat of polyurethane (I chose a Clear Satin fast-drying poly spray from Minwax). After I was done staining and a couple hours of dry time, Justin secured the top & bottom with some screws - secured from the bottom so we don't need to cover screw holes.

So after just two days of building, sanding, staining and painting, look at this beautiful final product! We have yet to sand it down and do one more coat of stain & poly, but it's almost ready to be used.

I couldn't wait to show it off!