Coffee table cannot be called essential furniture, but it occupies an important place in the arrangement of a living room or bedroom. Modern tables are endowed with a lot of functions, representing a storage system not only for the press, but also for other useful things. Many models are equipped with spacious drawers and compartments, a transforming system, turning into an oversized dinner table. Besides everything else, Coffee table IR acts as a significant decorative element that successfully complements the stylish design. It’s quite possible to make such a thing with your own hands if you apply some imagination and patience, and our article will provide interesting ideas for designing a coffee table at home.
Materials for manufacturing
Many different materials are used in the manufacture of modern coffee tables. Unlike previous times, when standard rectangular structures were stamped from MDF, today's models surprise with their diversity. One of the more expensive options is wooden tables made from natural solid wood. Such a thing will decorate any interior and will always look chic and respectable. The designs come in a wide variety - from strict, rough tables in the Scandinavian style to classic ones, decorated with forging or carved decorations.
Since wood is quite expensive, chipboard and MDF boards can help replace it. If we talk about durability, they are, of course, inferior to wooden ones, but they look no worse. Design tricks allow you to compensate for the simplicity of the material, for example, transformable tabletops, built-in sockets, etc.
Metal also takes part in the design of coffee tables. Frames are formed from metal pipes, which are then supplemented with countertops made of other materials. The graceful curls of forged elements with glass tabletops look very beautiful. Sometimes you can find designer designs in which the table consists entirely of metal.
In modern furniture production, you can increasingly find glass interior items that bring a certain lightness and airiness to the atmosphere. Products are made from heavy-duty tempered glass, resistant to various types of influences, so you don’t have to be afraid that such a piece of furniture will break or become deformed under the influence of high temperatures. In some models, only the surface of the tabletop is covered with glass.
Plastic is used much less frequently, since it is not very durable, but has a large color palette and low cost. Most often it is found as components of a wooden or metal structure.
In the home production of original coffee tables, the choice of material increases significantly, since, in addition to traditional materials, various improvised means are used.
How to make a coffee table: beautiful ideas
To make coffee tables with your own hands, plywood is most often used, which is relatively inexpensive and easy to process. You can also use various available materials and build the most bizarre designs. More complex parts, such as curly handles, legs, wheels, fittings and other decorative elements, can be purchased at a furniture store.
Modern style plywood coffee table
Making such an original coffee table will not require much time, but the product will take its rightful place in any interior with a touch of minimalism. To work, you need to purchase a sheet of plywood, three legs with fasteners, thick thread, a pencil, a tape measure, a jigsaw and paint (preferably white or black).
So, the first thing you need to do is cut out the tabletop. On the back of the sheet, select a point that will be the center and drive in a small nail. Cut a piece of thread the length of the radius of the future table. We attach one end of it to a hammered nail, and tie a pencil to the other and, stretching the structure, draw a round shape for the table top. Next, you can use your imagination and give the canvas a more original shape. It is noteworthy that to make such a table you will not need any drawings or measurements at all. We cut out the drawn shape of the tabletop using a jigsaw, sand it and paint it. When the structure is completely dry, we attach the legs. The table is ready.
Coffee table made from pallets
This original design will fit perfectly into many styles. It will most successfully complement a daring loft or natural eco-style. It is not difficult to design such an exclusive table: for work you need to get a tray, metal legs or wheels (at your discretion). You also cannot do without screws and a screwdriver, a saw, paint or varnish with a brush.
Step by step, all work on constructing the table will take place in the following order:
1. Mark the dimensions of the table on the pallet and saw off the excess part.
2. We take planks from the leftovers and cover the gaps in the main structure with them to create a continuous surface, fixing them with self-tapping screws.
3. We turn over and form five transverse strips: two on the sides (the legs will be attached to them) and one in the center for stability.
4. We mount the supports and open the structure with varnish or paint.
Tire coffee table
An old worn-out tire can be a great base for creating a beautiful home coffee table. Additionally, you need to prepare the plywood. Before you begin construction, you must thoroughly wash and dry the tire. Next, you need to measure the diameter of the tire and cut two circles from plywood: one - the tabletop - should correspond to the diameter of the tire, and the other - the base - should be a few centimeters smaller. You can immediately attach legs, wheels to the base, or leave it without supports at your discretion. We attach round sheets of plywood to the tire using self-tapping screws or sit them on construction glue - the base is ready.
Next, we choose one of two methods: we wrap the rope either completely around the structure, or only at the sides. In the first option, you need to think about how to treat the countertop - perhaps paint it or coat it with a shiny varnish.
You should start wrapping from the center: fix the end of the rope with a self-tapping screw or a glue gun and begin the movement of winding circles, gradually moving to the sides. There is no point in wrapping the base, unless you decide to make the table half two-color. At the end of the winding, the entire structure should be coated with transparent varnish to extend its service life.
Coffee table made from drawers
If you have some wooden boxes from under vegetables - do not rush to throw them away. Just four of these containers can turn into a beautiful and useful part of your living room interior. If you don’t have drawers, the hardest part of making a table will be getting them. Then everything is simple: the boxes need to be sanded, painted and folded, as shown in the photo. We use a sheet of plywood, which must be screwed to the bottom side of the structure so that it does not fall apart. So our coffee table is ready. The advantage of this design will be the organization of spacious storage areas for various magazines, books and other things.
Coffee table for travel lovers
Nowadays, traveling around different countries became available to many. But there is a special category of people who simply cannot live without constant travel to remote corners. They are the ones who will surely like a coffee table reminiscent of certain pleasant voyages. Any old suitcase with hard walls that is not suitable for its intended purpose will be suitable for production. You will also need a sheet of thick plywood, a screwdriver with screws, paint and, if desired, legs or wheels.
We cut out two sheets of plywood with an area equal to the base of the suitcase, attach them from the inside to the base and lid. Screw on the legs or wheels. Next, you need to decorate the table - different methods are used for this. One simple option is to paint it in White color, and when the structure is dry, use sandpaper to make abrasions indicating the antiquity of the item. This product will suitably decorate a living room in a shabby chic style. The black color of such a table will harmoniously fit into a loft living room, and the decoration using the decoupage technique will become a real masterpiece of Provencal design.
Coffee table made of driftwood
The uniqueness of furniture made from stumps and driftwood lies in its uniqueness - what is created by nature itself does not have similar patterns and textures. Such products always attract the eye with their curves and weaves. In addition, getting the source material is not so difficult - it can be found in the forest, on the shore of a reservoir. The snag needs to be washed, cleared of bark, and rotten waste removed. Next, you need to make adjustments, level the shape to fit the tabletop and base, and let the workpiece dry thoroughly (if there are large holes in the wood, it can be puttied).
The dried driftwood is carefully sanded, covered with stain (you can choose the shade you like best) and varnish. The base is ready. The table top can be attached using construction adhesive or self-tapping screws (depending on what it is made of). Nowadays, glass tabletops are very popular, through which winding wooden branches are clearly visible.
DIY coffee tables – photo ideas
We looked at only a few options for making coffee tables with our own hands. Our gallery will provide much more information and photos of finished products, where you can learn a lot interesting ideas. Enjoy watching!
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It seems like people lived without coffee tables and can continue to live. But if you look at the thing from a different angle, it turns out that the interior becomes more perfect and complete, and the thing turns out to be very comfortable. I talked on the phone and put my mobile phone on the table. I read a book - it’s convenient to leave it on the table so that I can return to reading soon. Do I need to go and buy the product?
The more complex the design, the more difficulties await in the work
To create a table, they take into account their physical and financial capabilities, the availability of the necessary materials and tools, skills in handling them and free time.
How to prepare your own drawings with dimensions for a coffee table
Even those people who did not study drawing at school are faced with the need to work from drawings. To make some models, a drawing may not be required, but for a do-it-yourself wooden coffee table you cannot do without it.
Related article:
: photos of the best ideas. What can be made from pallets for an apartment, office and cottage; rules for selecting and processing pallets; Master classes on making a table, sofa, bench, armchair and shelving - read our publication.
Making your own wooden coffee table
I really want a wooden coffee table like the one in the photo! If the desire to have a thing made of wood is strong, then there is no point in stopping yourself: arm yourself with tools, study articles on wood processing and teak, and “full speed ahead”!
Country style table made from a wooden barrel
The DIY coffee table made of wood and barrels looks amazing in the photo. Country style is not as simple as it seems, with such a table it is something sophisticated.
Making your own coffee table from chipboard
Relatively inexpensive material, A ready product looks modern and stylish.
Let's try to make a table step by step:
- Creating a drawing.
- Preparation of material and tools.
- Working with a jigsaw - all parts are transferred to chipboard sheet and sawed out.
- The legs are attached to the back of the tabletop lying on the floor using furniture corners.
- All edges of the chipboard are glued with a matching furniture edge.
The more complex the drawing, the more attention is needed in the work.
How to make a coffee table from laminated chipboard
A plywood coffee table can be made in a short time. Advice for inexperienced craftsmen: cutting of all parts can be ordered at a building materials store. Based on the sheet thickness of 18 mm, we order 800×800 mm - tabletop, 460×100 mm - four slats, 700×500 mm - shelf, 700×500 mm - two bottoms, four plastic corners, eight confirmations and 3.5× self-tapping screws 16 mm (16 pieces should be enough). All elements must be covered with melamine edge.
Let's move on to the assembly:
- According to the drawing, we cut out the required shape of the shelf with a jigsaw. Be sure to use a wood carving saw with fine pitches.
- We screw the vertical strips to the tabletop using corners and self-tapping screws.
- In the middle of the slats you need to install a shelf on the confirmations. To screw them in, we pre-drill the holes with a 4.5 mm drill. Also, the confirmations need to be screwed to the bottom.
- All conspicuous confirmations are covered with stubs.
Advice! If desired, this table can be mounted on wheeled supports.
Making a glass table with your own hands
For lovers of everything airy and spacious, a glass model is suitable. If you don’t have the skills to handle glass, it’s better to choose a table without unnecessary details.
Assembly:
- Drawing a drawing and making a cardboard pattern based on it.
- Cutting glass according to pattern.
- Sanding the edge with sandpaper or a drill at low speed.
The tabletop assembly diagram is shown in the photo below.
You can add a glass tabletop to a table made from car disks, barrels, wood, saw cuts, and pallets.
Making your own coffee table from scrap materials
Beloved by many creative people topic - how to use available materials for practical use. Products made from tires are especially popular - they are convenient to install in dachas and verandas, and from suitcases that have served their time as travelers.
Tire table
There are different ideas on how to use tires as a table. What pleases us is that such products are durable, original and take a minimum of time to manufacture.
Here small instructions on creating a garden furniture set with a small table at the head.
| Illustration | Description of action |
|---|---|
 | Prepare 11 tires of the same diameter. We take two tires on the chair and connect them using a screwdriver and self-tapping screws. For the table we take three tires. |
 | We cut out 4 circles from plywood (pressed shavings) slightly larger than the inner diameter of the tire, and one large circle for the tabletop. |
 | The result is a cute garden set. |
Suitcase table
Do you happen to have an old suitcase? How wonderful!
So, what is needed for such a rapid transformation? Four stable legs of any type - the main thing is that they are combined with the final decor option and easily support the product. Legs can be bought on Avito or torn off from old unnecessary furniture and made on a lathe. You can use white enamel for painting, as it is easy to decorate. But, in general, the color can be any, even gilding. If the exterior of the suitcase is perfectly preserved, then you don’t have to paint it. If desired, you also need PVA glue, decoupage napkins, brushes, sandpaper, gold or silver acrylic.
First, paint the base and let it dry. All irregularities are sanded and a second layer of enamel is applied. Now we paint the legs and, as soon as they are dry, glue them to the base with furniture glue. That's all the work! We turn the table over and admire the result of our labor.
How to make your own coffee table with additional elements
If the hostess loves rearrangements, or the table must be moved, as additional element Wheel supports are attached to the legs. It is very comfortable. If the table is small, then it can be served for tea in the kitchen and rolled into the living room. Another additional and functional element is the drawers. It turns out that the table becomes doubly more comfortable.
Table on wheels
To create a coffee table on wheels with your own hands, you need ready-made wheel supports. A small photo gallery of tables on wheels: they don’t have to be small, large metal or plastic wheels look even more interesting!
The wheels are attached to the legs when the supports themselves are already attached to the tabletop.
Table with drawers
There can be from one to three or four drawers, it depends on the table model.
To assemble a simple box, you need 4 small chipboard panels, wood glue, guides, and self-tapping screws.
After securing all the guides, check the smoothness and accuracy of movement. Then we assemble the box and simply insert it into the guides.
Do-it-yourself restoration of a coffee table: photos of interesting ideas
DIY coffee table decor is limited by the imagination of the creator. Any fantasy can be realized with effort. The decor must be selected to match the style of the room, otherwise dissonance will make the item unnecessary. But if you don’t want to make a new coffee table with your own hands? Then you need to find out how to restore the old one.
Decoupage - interesting technique using PVA glue and beautiful napkins. If you want to make decoupage look antique, then use crackle varnish.
The photo below is the answer to the question of how to update a coffee table with your own hands.
If the furniture needs updating due to its condition, then the first step is to turn the table over onto the tabletop and check the fastening of the support legs. If something needs to be corrected, there is no point in delaying it - the furniture will continue to deteriorate faster. You can simply repaint the table, sand it and try painting it.
PVA is applied to the tabletop and scraps are laid. At first the leaves may lie unevenly, but as they dry they will level out. Finally, the product is varnished.
Article
There is furniture, which sometimes is not urgently needed, however, without it the interior looks somehow unfinished. To add comfort, create a small coffee table with your own hands, which makes the living room a family-friendly place.
The advantages of creating household furniture according to your own design:
- minimum financial expenses;
- exclusivity of the model;
- personal convenience.
Ease of installation, variety of shapes and designs, a minimum of tools - all these advantages of coffee tables attract the interest of home professionals. In our article we will make a detailed analysis of famous homemade products and provide practical recommendations for their production.
How to make a small coffee table with your own hands, combining imagination, professionalism and practicality? It is more correct to begin the initial operations to create a unique piece of furniture with the embodiment of the finished drawings with detailed instructions. When choosing this kind of option as a basis, nothing will prevent you from adding based with my own hands things with the required originality. It’s not just the decoration and available materials that make the tables different from each other. The type of a given interior object can also influence their diversity; coffee tables may vary among themselves:
- configuration (square, rectangular, round, oval);
- materials (wood, glass, iron, plastic, combined);
- design (simple, folding, transformer, folding);
- style (typical, country, retro, hi-tech, classic, minimalism).
- the presence or absence of decorating components.
What do you need to get the job done?
How to make a coffee table with your own hands according to your design? Which ones exactly? necessary materials will be needed, depends on the basis of the object being assembled. A variety of additional accessories will be required.
Putting together a clear and strong table system of any size is quite difficult without glue, varnish and sandpaper. Permanent paint will also come in handy - choose convenient sprays, they can be used to quickly and without getting dirty, cover the entire surface of the tabletop. A high quality primer may be required to spray the base and supports. You can buy it at a construction store mall. Do not forget and materials for decoration– fabrics of different textures and impermeability, lace, multi-colored plastic or glass, etc.
It will be useful to have auxiliary raw materials - simple newspapers, a huge box, plastic sheeting, so that the remnants of “production” do not spread around the room. In order to assemble the planned modification, it is necessary to prepare the required devices. First of all, these are a hammer, scissors, and pliers. Various fastening components, furniture nails (simple and rivets) or screws of various sizes.
For rapid cutting of parts made of wood you need a saw. If you have a carpenter's table, and you have the skills for such work, then the existence of a chisel, cutter and plane will be a plus in order to process the wood base with professional precision. To decorate the components, you will need a sharp chisel or a set of carpenter's knives.
Types of tables made from edged boards, chipboard or MDF
The easiest way to make a coffee table with your own hands is to use panels with edged boards, chipboard or MDF.
In order to hide the joints of the plates, a typical method is used - installation on round wooden spikes (dowels). All that a home specialist needs to do in this case is to specifically plan the areas of the tenon structure at the ends of the sidewalls and drill mounting holes for them in the top and bottom cover.
To increase the rigidity of the installation, it is necessary to define a vertical cross member between its side walls. A small niche for storing magazines and other small items will not be superfluous here. It can be made from a slab that is left after cutting the lid and sides.
Mobility is a necessary function of the table. It is realized by the design of furniture wheels in the bottom. Small-sized transport wheels can be hidden, or you can purchase larger ones and deliberately highlight them. Thus, we will purchase an unusual table on wheels made from polished bars that support x powerful wood tabletop.
Table made of boards and boxes
For those for whom mobility is not an issue high value, and you want to have a solid table in a rustic style in your home, you can offer an option made of boards or a coffee table made of plywood. This kind of table will, without a doubt, be one of the main jewels in the living room of every country house.
The idea of using “random” objects to form household furniture turned out to be extremely effective. She gave birth to numerous homemade products from boxes and pallets. A little imagination and at least some expense are needed to assemble a coffee table from wood and plywood. based on four standard boxes.
The production algorithm looks like this: drawers are installed on edge, arranging them according to their surroundings one after the other. By connecting the system with the support of self-tapping screws, a plywood shelf is created in the middle of it. You can place a flower vase here or add decor from pebbles or shells. The work is completed by processing the wood with sandpaper, stain and varnish.
Natural wood table
Natural wood often does not need decoration. Using it for interior decoration, complement the decor with a simple table. In order to produce it, you will need to make several planed bars and picket fence strips.
The base frame will look reliable and powerful when using a contrasting color combination of different materials with the tabletop. For this purpose, the bars must be tinted with a dark stain and a cover made in natural color.
Wood in furniture goes well with metal. You can verify this by making a coffee table with metal legs. Its lid is assembled from three pieces of tongue-and-groove boards and framed with a plank.
To make legs with your own hands you will need welding machine, a piece of metal plate 1.5-2.0 millimeters wide, and scraps of reinforcing steel with a diameter of 10-14 millimeters.
Having bent 4 rods according to the template, you need to weld square pieces of plates or thick carpentry corners to them and alternately fasten them to the table top assembled from a tongue-and-groove plank. For final finishing, it is necessary to sand, tint and varnish the lid, sides and paint the legs.
Instead of a rod, for the purpose of producing a base, you can use pipe rectangular section . By welding 2 rectangles from it, cleaning the seams and covering the metal with gray paint, we will get strong supports for a tabletop assembled from oak boards. To increase stability, the iron sidewalls in front of the lid are connected with a piece of pipe.
Coffee table made from pallets
To make elegant folding furniture, wood is often used as a basis. Furniture can be made from an ordinary pallet. One item without gaps and four wooden supports is enough to create a beautiful table on your own.
You need to do the following:
- We start making an unusual table with pallets by marking.
- Having decided on the dimensions and having made all the required marks, we cut out the center of the pallet: a flat plane should appear on the front side, a raised one - with symmetrically placed bars - at the bottom.
- Treat the legs made of different materials (preferably carved) selected for the job with a primer and let them dry.
- At this time, you need to start tinting the top and sides of the tabletop.
- If all components are dry, you can begin to secure them. For connection purposes, use nails (or screws) and hardware.
- Once dry, each layer is polished with your own hands.
Stump table
An unusual coffee table comes from a single piece of log - a stump left from a fallen pine, birch or poplar. It should be quite wide and smooth, with attractive rings.
Depending on the height of the stump, you can choose from the following options:
- with a low tabletop on thin metal legs;
- medium height without supports (the base of the stump acts as a support);
- low table on wheels.
A hand-polished stump or log can be installed directly on the floor, or wheels can be attached. If desired, you can preserve the natural appearance of the stump - with the peel (keep it as is, or cover it with varnish), paint it in any color, having removed the peel in advance. White and light brown tones look best.
Glass table production
A DIY glass coffee table is very easy to make. As a tabletop, ordinary thick glass of any shape is used, preferably tempered, because the material is quite fragile and can crack. Glass can be used only just hardened, otherwise the reliability of the table will be in doubt.
The coffee table can be supported on wooden legs with a wide base, books, hemp and other components. It is preferable to produce the main support for it. The components are fixed with superglue.
Coffee table drawings
Schemes with everyone step by step instructions how to produce coffee table with your own hands from different materials, it’s easy to find on the Internet. Sketches with dimensions will be especially useful for those who plan to make a coffee table from wood or glass. Based on this drawing, it will be possible to significantly carry out the further production process.
A table is the second item after a stool that a novice amateur furniture maker should take on. Design simple table no more difficult than a stool; an unpretentious, comfortable table for the country house or for a picnic can be built in half a day using a hacksaw, hammer and drill. But a table made using the same technology and slightly refined can look great at home, on the left in the figure, instead of an expensive one. However, the table also gives greater freedom of creative expression; it can be a significant and even key element of interior design; it is not for nothing that artisanal furniture makers are called carpenters, and not sofa makers, cabinet makers or nightstand makers. Having become proficient in carpentry, you will eventually be able to take on exclusive tables and other positions. right there.
This article discusses how to make tables from wood. Wood is an environmentally friendly, affordable and easily processed material with remarkable aesthetic advantages. In utilitarian products, it forgives beginners quite serious mistakes, but delicate woodwork requires high skill. Having learned how to make wooden things, it will be much easier to master glass, metal and plastic.
Tool and workshop
To make a table with your own hands, you need a separate living rooms production area: woodworking is notoriously dusty. In addition, such good means of tinting and protecting wood as stains emit harmful fumes during the staining process; nitro varnishes too, although to a lesser extent. Therefore, home carpentry should be well ventilated, or better yet, with forced ventilation. You can use the garage, but there will be a lot of sawdust, and it will not be good for the car. Better to work in a barn; if it doesn’t exist yet, then you can build it, and it will be useful for a lot of things on the farm.
An ordinary carpenter's tool, on the left in the figure, will be enough for a start. But the work will go much faster, and the result will be better, if you attract help from modern achievements, on the right there:
- Rotary miter box, pos. 1, allows you to make cuts exactly to size and angle in 2 planes. It is advisable to take it with a complete bow saw, so everything together will be cheaper and the work will be more accurate. A miter box is a universal device, it will always come in handy and it is better to buy it.
- Also versatile manual jigsaw with tilting shoe, pos. 2, which allows you to cut at an angle to the vertical plane.
- Disc grinder, pos. 3 and 4, gives a beginner the opportunity in 5-15 minutes to obtain the surface of a wooden surface, which would take an experienced carpenter with sandpaper in hand at least an hour to achieve, and a tape one, pos. 5, also process ends quickly and efficiently; There are also belt sanders for grooves and recesses with a protruding working body. These are already specialized tools, unsuitable for other work, and quite expensive, so it’s better to rent them first. True, craftsmen still successfully brush with grinders, i.e. They artificially age the wood, but this is delicate work.
- It is also preferable to rent at first manual frezer on wood, pos. 6, with a set of cutters. They process shaped edges, select holes and grooves.
In general, a universal household woodworking machine (UBDS) of various modifications is very useful on the farm. It is compact, fits on the table, power supply – 220 V 50/60 Hz 380-500 W. UBDS combines circular saw, jointing, wood turning machines and a set of cutters. True, you can’t just turn the table legs on it; the reach of the tailstock caliper is too small. But the caliper itself is just steel round pipe, it is not difficult to lengthen it. The cutter stop remains standard, it is movable, the leg and the long support are sharpened in one setting.
How to choose a tree?
A wooden table can be made from any wood of average resistance to decay, except for the softest species: poplar, aspen, alder, willow, ailanthus. Domestic ones include:
The breeds are listed in order of availability. For example, timber harvesting of horse chestnut, plane tree and juniper is not carried out at all: the former are too valuable for landscaping in the southern regions, and juniper is endangered and is protected. Industrial harvests of elm are almost entirely used for shoe lasts, weaving shuttles, etc., and rowan berries are used for weapon stocks; full-fledged plastic replacement they don't have one yet. Stone birch grows very slowly, in limited places, and does not renew itself well, so its harvesting is strictly regulated, and its wood is expensive.
Note: Walnut is especially valuable for furniture - its wood combines high hardness with excellent toughness; the most delicate carvings on walnut do not chip. And walnut wood from burls - large growths on the trunk - is not inferior in texture to Karelian birch.
At the beginning of a carpentry career, it is better to limit yourself to pine, birch, oak, acacia and boxwood. The countertop will be pine or oak; birch - on the legs of a pine table; in the countertop it warps a lot from spills. Acacia and boxwood make excellent dowels, see below.
For a pine tabletop made from boards, you can and even should use low-grade cheap boards - knotty, twisted ones. But, of course, without falling knots, cracks, wormholes and traces of rot in the form of spots of unnatural color: black, gray, blue, green, in general, not similar to this tree. For example, traces of rot on black (ebony) wood may be whitish or yellowish.
Why is there substandard quality on the countertop? Perhaps also unedged, which needs to be finished using a circular saw and jointer? And after skillful processing, they turn out to be layers of remarkable beauty, on the left in Fig. Manufacturers do not like such wood: the production cycle is delayed and waste increases. But for yourself, doing it yourself is not so scary compared to the result.
Wooden crock
Commercial pine has a clearly defined wood zonation in the form of annual growth rings; other conifers and many deciduous species also have it. On the cut of the board, the rings form the so-called. hump in the form of thin concentric arcs. If the top of the tree is directed across the face of the board, as in Fig. in the center, then when joining the shield for the tabletop (see below), the boards are oriented with their humps alternately up and down, from below in Fig. If the humps are directed towards the end of the board (on the right in the figure), then the boards are placed in the shield with their humps in one direction. These subtleties are necessary so that during operation the tabletop does not crack or warp.
Varnishes, paints, impregnation, glue
A free way to protect wood from rotting is used motor oil, but for what you eat, this is not the best option. Impregnation with water-polymer emulsion (WPE) twice, with a break of 3-5 days, would be optimal; it will provide protection to the table for the entire duration of its life. Even birch plywood impregnated with EPE is suitable for furniture front panels: coated with varnish on top, it does not delaminate.
Old furniture nitrocellulose varnishes NTs-218 and NTs-2144 with solvent No. 647 are gradually going out of use: they are superior in all respects acrylic varnishes on water based; In addition, they are safe to use. Also, glues, bone carpentry and BF-2 with alcohol are inferior to PVA; True, to obtain a high-quality seam, the latter requires applying glue to both surfaces, keeping them touch-free before joining and keeping them under pressure for 1-3 days, but in home production this is acceptable for yourself.
Wood for furniture can be tinted in advance and protected with stain, which allows you to make beautiful typesetting parts; an example will be given below. To tint the assembled units, you can use paints based on the same varnish and artistic (not painting!) dyes: oil in tubes for NC varnishes and acrylic water-based for the same varnish.
First, prepare the “painting”: take 30-50 ml of varnish and squeeze 1-1.5 cm of paint into it while continuously stirring thoroughly with a painting brush. The paint is stored in a tightly closed bottle and added to the varnish to the desired tone; A test for it is made on a piece of wood, the tone is determined by the complete drying of the varnish. Colored varnishes based on NC and oil paints can be mixed according to the mixing rules oil paints for painting; acrylic - no restrictions.
First steps
The country table is the first of the homemade ones. If there are 1-2 brick pallets left from the construction site, then a table made from pallets will be the first of the first. Not only because it is extremely simple, but also because it is very useful on the farm.
From one pallet, sanded, impregnated and varnished, it turns out garden table like a magazine one, on the left in the figure. If you have a pair in stock, you can make a wall-mounted work desk-rack out of them in literally half an hour, in the center and on the right. You can also weave chains for it yourself from soft wire, covered with a PVC tube or, better, heat-shrinkable. To fully raise the tabletop, small tools are placed on the shelf of a wall pallet.
With a little more work, a prefabricated cutting table for the dacha is made from one pallet, allowing you to move the summer-autumn harvesting campaign outside without littering with husks and without trampling on stalks. For the winter, this table is assembled into a compact package. The design is clear from Fig; Place a bucket under the hatch in the countertop.
The next in order of complexity is the well-known country trestle table, in common parlance a goat. Its structure of 40 mm boards is shown on the left in the figure, and in addition to it is a bench of the same device. And on the right is a country folding table based on the same principle. It has articulated joints (M8-M12 bolts, washers and nuts with locknuts); in the place marked in green, a stop boss is placed on nails between the crossbars of the tabletop. When folded, this table fits in the trunk of a car, so it’s also suitable for going on a picnic. If this is not expected, or the trunk is larger, the tabletop can be made longer.
Finally, a gazebo table also does not require any special tools or skills, see fig. below. The material is the same magpie board and some inexpensive fasteners.
One step closer to art...
To advance in table building, you now need to learn some of the basics of carpentry. A table, in general, consists of a table top, its supporting frame, possibly with niches and/or mechanisms, or simply a plate - a base - legs, and the nodes that hold everything together. Let's go through them starting with the connections along with the legs, because... their fastening is the most weakness table.
Connections and legs
At first, we need to master the connection on dowels - round wooden bosses, see fig. Dowel joints are assembled using quick-drying glue that does not require curing: wood glue, BF-2, acrylic. Sometimes, to connect thin boards, instead of dowels, nails with bitten off heads are used, pos. 4, but this is bad: the wood dries out, but the metal does not, and over time the connection becomes loose.
For dowels, use thin-layered wood that is stronger than both parts being connected, i.e. the hardest rocks. A pine table on birch legs can be connected with oak or beech dowels. There are ready-made round sticks for cutting dowels on sale; Before use, the edges of the dowels are chamfered. Plastic dowels are also sold, but they are intended exclusively for detachable connections, for example. inserts in sliding tables.
The legs are attached to industrial tables with detachable drawers, see fig. on right. The item marked in yellow is the simplest, cheapest and worst. Buyers of Shiroptrebov Soviet furniture are well aware of its shortcomings and complete lack of advantages, let it remain there. Reliable, holds well, except for the legs, and the boards of the underframe, drawers with mortise jibs, “green” pos. They require the least cost, but are quite labor-intensive, so they are rarely used in industry, but just right for an amateur. The drawbar with a shaped steel jib, at the top right in the figure, is even stronger; In this way, you can attach legs with a round head and any legs in general, but you need purchased shaped parts made of high-quality steel.
Note: The legs are attached to the round table as shown below in Fig.
Detachable legs are needed not only for ease of storage and transportation. IN small apartment With narrow corridor a table with legs is often simply impossible to fit into the living room, no matter how you turn it. Modern apartments more spacious, and in 1-story private houses the table can be brought in/out through the window, so in such cases the strength and durability of a table with tightly secured legs comes to the fore.
For tables on a rectangular base, the heads of the legs for blind fastening must also be rectangular, pos. 1 in Fig. By the way, the drawers can also be one-piece: then the legs have dowels that pass through a mortise wooden jib. From the inside, the dowels are cut flush and wedged with dogwood or boxwood wedges inserted across the grain of the jib wood. Assembled with glue, such a connection is so strong and durable that you can fight with these 200-year-old tables by grabbing the legs.
Sufficiently high-quality tables with turned legs are simply assembled on dowels, pos. 2. For simpler tables, the legs are made of timber and fastened with self-tapping screws after attaching the tabletop to the tabletop, pos. 3. Even simpler and lighter are the legs from a pair of boards each, pos. 4 and 5. To prevent them from clinging to the floor, you need to put thrust bearings on them below or put the table on wheels.
Tabletop
The easiest, but not the cheapest, option is to order a countertop made of laminated chipboard (chipboard, laminate). Laminated chipboard for countertops is available in the form of so-called. postforming - slabs 3.6x1.2 m thick 20-60 mm with decorative coating. The upper edge of the postforming plate is rounded, the lower edge has a drip tray, see fig. Modern furniture laminate is completely environmentally friendly, no matter what those who don’t want to forget the furniture, which stank of phenol for months, gossip about.
Postforming is well purchased by small furniture enterprises. They always have his waste; of them you are willing and for completely affordable price They will cut the tabletop to size if the company has a jig cutting machine. Perhaps such an order will be accepted by a single individual entrepreneur if he is sitting idle. The finished slab will be edged, i.e. cover the end PVC edging(edge). If you do the edging yourself (sometimes they ask for an absurd extra payment for edging), then keep in mind:
- The upper and lower flanges of the edging have different profiles, see on the left in Fig. Mix it up - there will always be a edging of dirt on the table.
- The edging must be taken exactly according to the thickness of the slab. You can put a 24 mm edging on a 25 mm slab, but it will soon slide off.
- The groove for the edging ridge must be selected using a manual disk cutter; No one seems to have done it properly with a saw yet.
- Before installing the edging, a thin layer is applied to the surface of the end silicone sealant and the “sausage” is squeezed into the groove; in this case, the silicone will also act as a lubricant, without which the edge ridge may simply become wrinkled.
- The comb is inserted into the groove with light blows of the mallet, gradually moving along the contour. The tabletop should lie face up on the support; squeezed out excess silicone is immediately wiped off with a clean rag lightly moistened with table vinegar.
Plank tabletops are held together in plank frames with wedges and spacers - wedges. It’s quite possible to make the vamps yourself; You need 3-4 per tabletop. The boards (cheeks) of the weim are wrapped in polyethylene so that the shield does not stick to them. In Fig. for example, the process of making a round tabletop; the rectangular one is put together in the same way, only cutting it to size is easier. The shield is attached to the tabletop using glue and dowels (see below); if the boards are tongue-and-groove, dowels are not needed. When rallying on PVA, the next plot is kept until the applied glue comes off before installing it in the clamp.
Countertops are often assembled without rims on a plaza - a flat surface covered with plastic film. It will not be possible to assemble a good board panel on the plaza: either it will come out cracked, or the boards will stand on end when assembling it. But in the right hands, stacked tabletops made from fragments are simply wonderful. For example, at pos. 1-3 fig. – tabletop made from sawing waste, tinted with stain. And at pos. 4-5 The base of the tabletop was the platform itself, made of thick plywood. The tile and its break are glued tile adhesive, then the depressions are filled with grout, the surface is varnished and the outline is outlined with a wooden strip edge.
Note: These examples do not illustrate all the possibilities of making inlaid artistic tabletops with your own hands.
Underframe
Table base with fixed legs - simple wooden frame, left in Fig. Niches and parts of mechanisms are not involved in the power circuit. If the table is longer than 1.2 m, or the tabletop is removable/extendable, or large operating loads are expected (for example, a work table), the underframe is reinforced with stiffening ribs in the center. If the legs are attached with drawers, then the underframe is made integral with the tabletop to create a single power circuit, on the right in Fig.
Without frame
Tables without an underframe are also known, in which the tabletop and legs work in a single supporting system. Very durable, e.g. plywood table on the left in the figure; its connections are dowel. Unfortunately, this is not an economical design for an amateur: the sidewalls cannot be assembled from pieces, they must be solid. In mass production, the waste is not very large, but a sheet of plywood with a thickness of 24 mm or more will be used in one piece for large sidewalls, and another 1 piece for smaller ones. The table on the right is quite possible to make with your own hands: the load-bearing frame is prefabricated; connections - in a tenon with a tightening bolt and half a tree. However, the tabletop in this case should be round or square, with rounded or right corners.
... and we find ourselves in the kitchen
Exactly. The kitchen table is the next in order of complexity after the simplest country tables. It should already meet the requirements of apartment ergonomics, dimensions - 75 cm in height for people of average size; the width of the place for 1 eater/rider is 60-80 cm, depending on its corpulence, the width of the tabletop is at least 70 cm. The aesthetic appearance is very desirable, but is not decisive: suddenly you messed up with the decoration, that’s why the tablecloth. The countertop should be easy to clean, durable, and resistant to spilled heat from hot dishes.
All these requirements will be satisfied by a table made of laminated chipboard on metal legs; They are also sold separately in sets of 4 pieces, with fasteners, on the left in Fig. Factory-made table legs are usually equipped with height-adjustable heels. A table, the manufacture of which will be reduced to screwing the leg sockets with confirmatory screws, will cost 30-50% less than a completely purchased one, and in appearance it will not be inferior to it, on the right in Fig.
If you are not too lazy to put your hands to it, you can make steel legs with your own hands. This is not only a cheaper, but also a more durable option: the sockets of the branded legs are cast from rather fragile silumin, the fastenings weaken over time and need to be tightened. You can cut out the nests yourself from good steel, and weld the very legs into them.
In a more spacious kitchen, there may be room for a larger table. In such a case, follow up. rice. blueprints kitchen table in rustic style. This table is “rustic” not only in appearance: it does not have a single nail or metal fasteners at all. Just wood and glue. A connoisseur, seeing this, nods his head in understanding and approval, and the design is simple and accessible to a beginner. True, in addition to the tabletop, you will also have to assemble the panels for the sidewalls, but in this case the extra work is worth it.
Kruglyashi
A table with a round top is appropriate in any room, if it fits there. But a tabletop made of boards in this case is not the best the best option: due to the presence of sharp corners, it is without a frame, which is very complex and labor-intensive, and is susceptible to splitting. Composite countertops made from small fragments, like the one described above from waste, are free from this drawback; Unlike laminate roundels, they are decorative, stylish, unique and practically free.
There are even more sharp corners in a finely-set countertop, but here the “broom law” comes into play. Not the American Senator Venik, who loves democracy in Russia to the point of complete oblivion about it at home, but that broom that is used to sweep away trash. As you know, it is impossible to break it (the broom, not the senator) tied up, but even a child will break it twig by twig. So here, thanks to the ease of distributing loads between small fragments, a table top assembled from them works like a solid slab, and after assembly you can cut it even “Zu”.
Note: The idea of the senator-broom, sorry, Broom, was brought to mind by the statement of his compatriot Samuel Clemens, world famous as Mark Twain: “I assert, and I undertake to prove it, that Mr. Cooper has no more imagination than a bull. But not the bull that moos in the pasture, but the one that supports the bridge.”
How to make a semi-folding round table is shown in the figure; On the right there are the tabletop dimensions and assembly order. And in Fig. Above on the right is a small round table for the hallway, according to the old classification - a business table. Its feature is the minimum number of connections; assembly with glue. Any round piece will fit on the tabletop, from a cut stump to a cardboard one, made using the method of making cardboard shelves, but the underframe must be durable, made of wood (200-piece board) or laminated chipboard.
Let's go further: to the living room
The table in the main room of the house should suit the whole house. At the same time, with the modern desire for laconic design (which also saves costs on living space), the table should, for the time being, not be conspicuous and take up less space. Therefore, one of the most popular pieces of furniture these days has become a transforming table.
The simplest transformable table, which, despite all its transformations, remains a table and does not turn into a closet or bed - a table-bedside table; It is quite possible to make it yourself “from scratch”. There are 2 options that are most common here. On the left in Fig. – the table is unfoldable, it has a record ratio of occupied space in expanded and collapsed form. These are most often placed in studio apartments perpendicular to the wall on the border of the kitchen and living areas. With the tabletop wings lowered, it will serve as a bar. By lifting the wings one at a time, you can get a kitchen or everyday dining table, and when fully deployed (in the center), it will provide space for a fairly crowded banquet.
For a bachelor living in a small apartment, a folding table-bedside table, on the right in Fig. It's basically 2 small round ones. folding tables, described above, connected by a rectangular insert. You can have lunch with one folded one, because, unlike the previous option, there is somewhere to put your legs. And when you turn it around, spend a romantic evening with a beautiful stranger or intimate gatherings with friends.
All the above qualities are combined in transforming coffee and dining tables with a mechanism. The variety of transformation mechanisms is great, but for tables, which are always tables, they mainly come down to 2 types: elevator (pantograph) and book. How they both work, see the video:
Theoretically, a book is more stable than an elevator, although a lot depends on the quality of execution. Book lovers are more popular because a book-like mechanism can still be made independently, but an elevator outside production conditions is unlikely.
How the book-table unfolds is shown step by step in Fig. on right. To make it yourself, you need to know that the key unit is the damping-balancing elastic link. Quite expensive branded designs use very softly operating gas dampers (gas lifts), but for an amateur it is better to opt for a spring damper, and not because gas lift is much more expensive.
The fact is that the gas lift must be coordinated within fairly narrow limits with the kinematics of the lever system, the weight of the tabletop, underframe and the dead weight of the levers. If the balance of the entire system does not fit into its characteristics, the mechanism simply will not work. And the spring can always be tightened/loosened; as a last resort, replace it. In general, an unsuccessful homemade transforming table with gas lifts can rarely be “brought to fruition,” but a spring table almost always does. If you still decide to suffer with a homemade acrobat table, in Fig. – drawings of the spring transformation mechanism.
Without the availability of drilling, turning and metal milling machines or access to them, most parts of the transformation mechanism will have to be ordered. Then its production will cost a little about $40, and you can buy a good ready-made one for $50-$60. A factory-made transforming coffee table rarely costs less than $200, so even in this situation the savings are significant.
The transforming table is made to fit the mechanism. One of the most popular are Mazetti transformation mechanisms, thanks to good quality at a moderate price for this class of products. In addition, Mazetti mechanisms are produced in a supporting frame (inset in the center in the figure), which greatly simplifies installation. Other pos. in Fig. show the structure and dimensions of the table for this mechanism.
For a strong feast
Whatever you say, a normal family with children, friends and relatives cannot do without crowded gatherings at the table, and here a transforming table will not always help out. However, we’ll leave banquet tables for the living room more or less fully, as they say, for later: these are products more high order difficulties; primarily due to the sliding mechanism.
By the way, the good old “sliders” with wooden guides and wooden sliders of the tabletop halves (item 1 in the figure) are quite convenient and reliable when properly executed; in addition, you can make them yourself, but such a process requires a special detailed description. Modern mechanisms extension with telescopic guides for full extension, pos. 2, allow you to use not 1, but up to 3-5 inserts, which increases the table capacity by 6-10 people, respectively, but they are quite expensive, and their installation requires a description no less voluminous.
There are banquet tables with folding inserts, pos. 3. In elite models, when moving apart/sliding the halves of the tabletop, the inserts lift, unfold and put in place or put back into the underframe, a very complex mechanism, but it manual options available for making at home.
As for banquet tables with retractable individual tables, arranged like a keyboard stand in a computer desk, they cannot be called popular: by leaning forward (and how can this be avoided if the house has no servants?), we get the board back into the table and our portion of the treat - for festive clothes.
But let's not talk about sad things. Let us remember that the table is not always moved apart, and you can use an extension, but a solid table is in any case more reliable. Therefore, in the series of pictures below there is a way to make a very durable and inexpensive dining table, and see how it looks “alive” on the left in the picture. at first.
In addition
You often want to paint a table, or any furniture, in more than just stripes or paint it artistically. To protect the design from external influences and to ensure the possibility of refinishing the varnish if necessary, the paint should not be applied, but rather rubbed into the wood before varnishing. The technique of painting by rubbing paint in layers is called glazing. So in conclusion, we offer a master class on glazing wood.
Video: master class on wood glazing
How and from what to make a cool table with your own hands
Many people dream of decorating the interior of their apartment with exclusive and interesting designer items furniture. The stores offer a huge number of similar interior items, but the prices for them are often simply fabulous. With a little effort, you can do some things yourself. For example, various scrap materials make excellent coffee tables, which will become a real decoration of any interior and a source of pride for home owners.
Marine style table
In order to make your own coffee table in a marine style, you will need an old window frame, which must first be cleaned of dust and dirt. Then, if necessary, insert new glass into the frame, clean the surface of the structure from paint and sand it with sandpaper. The surface of the frame should be covered acrylic paint or white enamel.
To make the legs you will need a cutting, which must be cut into 4 equal parts. To remove all roughness and unevenness, the surfaces of the legs should be treated with sandpaper. As a base, you can use a furniture board or board, the width of which does not exceed the width window frame. The legs are attached to the base using long self-tapping screws. Also, the base with legs are attached to the frame with self-tapping screws.
Since the frame is an empty transparent box that can be filled with attributes marine theme: pebbles, shells and souvenirs brought from vacation. To give the table a complete look, its legs can be braided with a thin rope.
Table from a suitcase
An original table can also be made from an old suitcase. For such a piece of furniture, you will need to purchase furniture legs. They can be either metal or wood. If you use special wheels, you can get an original model of a mobile coffee table. You will also need a screwdriver, screws and a piece of plywood for the job.
First of all, you need to cut a rectangle out of plywood, the dimensions of which must correspond to the width and length of the bottom of the suitcase. Plywood is placed on the bottom of the suitcase and markings are made for the legs. Using a screwdriver and screws, the legs are attached to the base of the suitcase. Then felt is glued to the base, inside the suitcase. The table is ready.
There are many various options turning an old suitcase into a coffee table. By choosing the right legs, the table can be made in a classic or retro style.
Table made of logs
Making a table from logs is also not difficult at all. To do this, you will need small logs of approximately the same thickness and height (32 pieces). You should also prepare a base for the table, 4 wheels for furniture or legs, putty, glue suitable for wood, and a screwdriver.
First you need to make a base for the table, along the perimeter of which there will be logs. The middle of the warp is sewn up with cardboard. Legs or wheels are attached to the underside of the base. In order for the table to appear to be made entirely of logs, small round dies must be glued to the surface of the cardboard. All voids formed between the dies are covered and thoroughly rubbed to create a smooth surface of the table. You can decorate such a table with branches.
Instead of a large number of small logs, to make a coffee table in a similar way, you can use one thick cut of a log.
Pallet table
Even the most ordinary pallets that can be found on each one will make an excellent coffee table. To work you need to prepare:
Wooden pallets;
Hammer;
Drill;
Nail puller;
Clamps;
Glue;
Screws;
Screwdriver;
Legs or wheels;
Primer;
Soap.
First of all, the surface of the pallets must be cleaned of dirt. To do this, you can use a drill with a wood cutting attachment. You should also use a nail puller to get rid of old nails and disassemble the pallets into pieces. All damaged and broken pieces of boards must be glued together. Gently clamp the boards with clamps and let them dry thoroughly. Then glue the prepared parts of the tabletop on the back side and again with clamps. After complete drying, the surface of the table must be coated with a layer of primer and then varnish. Wheels or legs must be attached to the back of the resulting table. To make it easier to attach the screws to the table, their surfaces can be rubbed with regular soap.
After all the work done, you will get a functional, stylish and compact table.
DIY cool table ideas photo
