How To Make A Wood Slab Coffee Table – When I go “home” to visit, I actually go to the house where I grew up.
Does anyone else sleep in the old bedroom when they go home? Luckily all my old posters are long gone because there are some things I don’t want to explain to my kids.
How To Make A Wood Slab Coffee Table
One of the “design features” in our house when I was growing up was a 5 foot slab of unfinished black walnut that sat on one half wall. I don’t even know if the wood paneling was attached to the half wall, but it worked like one.
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Antitypes of the type. I had the fortunate task of dusting all the nooks and crannies of the live edge of the slab. The teenage eye roll I got from doing this was just a bonus.
I never knew until this week that wooden planks have a neat history. Given to my parents by my uncle Mervyn. He worked in the logging industry, but also competed in logging sports in the 1960s. Yes, logging games are a real thing. If you’ve never heard of the sport, check out this YouTube video by another relative of mine, Mel Lentz.
About 12 years ago my father remodeled the house. Half of the wall was removed, and the wonderful wooden board that I had spent my entire childhood dusting with came into storage.
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Diy Live Edge Wood Coffee Table
When I got home for the last visit, I walked into the living room and was greeted by this beauty: a DIY coffee table from that wooden slab.
That wooden board was such a staple of my childhood that I never stopped thinking about how it could be recreated.
My stepmom (aka The Junk Whisperer) had a vision of using a slab of wood as a coffee table that was just perfect.
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The table legs are DIY made from 1.5 inch black metal pipe. This type of black pipe can be found at any home improvement store, but these came from a plumbing store.
If you buy this type of tube, you will notice that it is coated with some kind of oily film. If you want to paint it, first wash the pipe to remove that oil. Be safe and prime first or use a spray paint that has a primer in it. Otherwise, the paint will not work properly.
The wood paneling was sanded and polished decades ago, but given a touch of sanding and a few coats of a clear glue (like this one). I thought the tile was cool in its original state, but a few coats of clear sealer really made the wood pop!
Live Edge Coffee Tables That Capture Nature’s Beauty In Their Designs
Now drive home and check your parent’s garage for treasures that can be reused and recycled.
If you’ve learned nothing else from reading this blog, know that my life experiences often serve as lessons on what not to do.
Today’s lesson? It’s much easier to put a slab of wood in your suitcase before your parents realize what they have on their hands and turn that beauty into a coffee table. Just saying…
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Seriously though, it’s fun for me to see something old (but not that old because I’m still very young) transformed into something new and useful that will bring joy for many years to come.
P.s. I wrote this article on the fly. I didn’t even have my good camera with me. If you have any questions about making this DIY coffee table live, let me know and I can dive into it in the comments or in a separate article.
By Kevin Ayers. I recommend going to Ireland to buy this book, but if that seems like a trip, you can also buy it on Amazon.
How Much Does A Live Edge Table Cost?
Thanks for hanging out with me at my parents house today! It was a pleasure! If you want to read some more stories from my trip home, go here. One of the most exciting things about moving to Denver is that I now have access to more live tile materials. We needed a new coffee table and I also wanted to make something that showed off the new Wood Whisperer faucets, so a simple slab coffee table with metal legs fit the bill.
One place Denver locals keep recommending I check out is Collector Specialty Woods (CS Woods). After looking at their website I jumped in the truck and decided to see what they had to offer. To say my mind was blown is an understatement. This place has more tiles than I’ve ever seen in one place, with a variety of types and sizes from the small to the simply ridiculous. I chose a small claro walnut top that I thought would go well with my space and when I checked out I noticed a cool set of metal legs sitting on the side. It turned out that the legs were made by a local manufacturer and they were also for sale. Sold! I lovingly placed my new plaque in the cab of my truck (it was too pretty to put in the bed) and headed to my shop to get to know my new friend a little better.
In many ways, a tile project is similar to light woodworking. And believe me, it was easy! But don’t underestimate the time and attention to detail required to get a tile just right. My board was in pretty good shape, but I still spent hours over several days filling joints, bug holes, and controls. I like to use West System Epoxy for filling: 105 resin, 205 hardener and CA glue with pump kit and activator.
Wood Coffee Table Designs To Define Your Style
To clean up the raw edges I used a combination of etching and sanding. I don’t have a serious sandblasting setup, so I decided to dip my toes in by purchasing a fairly simple sandblasting gun. I filled it up with Black Beauty abrasive media, hooked up the compressed air and was off to the races. Considering the price of this setup, I was really happy with the results as there were no problems cleaning up and smoothing the rough surface of the live edge.
Since this coffee table has to withstand Hurricane Ava and Tropical Storm Metto, I decided to go with a polyurethane finish. Polyfinish generally has a bad reputation for making wood look like plastic if applied too thickly. But if you use an eraser polygon (diluted for you) and apply it carefully, you can end up with an incredible finish that looks natural and protects. It offers a lot. The video shows the details, but here’s a quick overview.
The legs are attached to the table using 1/4″-20 x 1″ L bolts. Instead of using thread inserts, I use Wood Whisperer Thread Taps to finish the job. Faucets are very easy to use. Simply drill the correct size hole to the desired depth and use the tape to cut the threads. The bolts can then be driven home. For more information on these taps, check out WWThreadTaps.com.
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When it comes to living edge tiles, less is more. The plate itself is a real show and mother nature has done almost all the work for us. Our job as woodworkers is to add a base that compliments the slab and visually doesn’t get in the way. All too often I see an over-engineered base that competes with the top. don’t do this Let the tip be the hero and design a base that supports it in the simplest and most entertaining way. Or you can overcome the design challenge by simply using a visually “light” metal base or leg. Normally I would have made the base out of wood, but as I said at the beginning I wanted to show the Wood Whisperer Thread Taps in action and this seemed like a good way to do it. All in all, I am very pleased with the results.
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