Map Table Remodel

Our friends that live a couple houses down had shown me a table that they wanted made into a coffee table and asked if I would be interested in taking on the project.  After looking at the table and hearing the story behind it, I was ready to get started.

 Our neighbor used to work at a restaurant up the Northeastern US somewhere called the Charthouse.  And every table had some type of inlaid map.  When he left there years ago, he ended up with a few and had already had one made into a coffee table, but this one was sitting in the garage still waiting on it's remodel. Table was in good shape, obviously had to get rid of the base and then dismantle it.

The ends flip out to accommodate more diners.  He wanted to keep this functionality.

Mock up of the table, got the map off and about to take everything apart and sand it all down.

And the finished product.  I used Rustoleum stain in the Kona color, did 2 coats and wiped it off after applying a few strokes.  Clear coated in a semi-gloss to give it a little more shine.  I replaced all the screws and gave the map a good cleaning.  It turned out really well and they were very happy!

Thanks for looking!

 

Kid Storage Table & Stools

Back in January I posted the kid's storage table and stools for my son's school auction as their class project, you can see that post here.  The plans from Ana's site are here & here.  Kristin decided that she wanted to do a set for her mom for Mother's Day.  I built this a couple of months ago and used the Rustoleum stain from Lowe's in the Kona color.  I love this stuff!  We only did 1 coat on the whole thing basically, and just clear coated it and it was good to go.  She loved it and it will be put to the test from the grandkids! 

Found a really cool piece of 1x6 that had a good mark right down the middle, so knew that the stain would really pick it up.

Thanks for looking, got a unique furniture redo to post by next week hopefully!

 

iCoffee Table

I was in our local Apple store a few weeks ago and was waiting on my phone to get updated and noticed the tables they had in there were really cool.  They had 4x4 posts, with the tops exposed, and 4x4's on the sides too, so had a different look to them.  Here is picture I took while at the store... 

I had been wanting to do a new coffee table for our living room and Kristin liked the look of it so presented it to Ana White from Knock Off Wood as our next collaboration and she was on board and even came up with the fitting name, iCoffee Table!

The one element that we changed was not using 4x4's for the sides.  She made a good point that it would be too hard to attach them to the posts and get a solid joint, so we went with 1x4's for the sides and still left the top of the 4x4 posts exposed, which gives it the look we wanted.  Table turned out great, probably would have made it a little taller, went with 16" and would go with 18" if I built another one. 

This was a very simple build, only took a few hours to build and sand down.  Kreg jig is very important since all the joints are attached that way. Pictures are below of the step by step process.  Ana has the plans on her site here.  Total cost for materials is about $70.

We went with 1x12's for the top, very important to get one that is not bowed in any way, obviously don't want your coffee table to be wavey.  Here is one of the pieces in my Kreg Jig.

The 3 top pieces put together.  I did 5 holes on one side and 4 on the other to stagger the pocket holes.

1x4 piece attached to side.  One thing to keep in mind; make sure you have them level on the top side.  If you level it from the bottom (like it is below) you might be of a fraction of an inch and will not be smooth on top.

Got the 4x4's attached.  I found a local lumber yard that had untreated 4x4's for around the same price as the treated ones at HD & Lowe's.  I have used treated ones on all of my other projects, so if you can't find untreated ones, still doable, but I will use these for all projects moving forward.

Other 1x4's attached, top of table complete

Got the first 1x4 side piece on 

All 1x4 sides are on

Close up view of all the pocket holes 

You probably don't need to reinforce it with 2x4 braces, but we have a 6 year old that thinks he is a superhero most of the time, so sure he will find his way on top of this at some point, so decided to add them, very minimal additional cost. 

 Pre-sanded and you can see where one of the joints is not perfectly smooth, but after sanding, you won't be able to tell.  Did not distress this piece by beating it with chain, the 4x4's had a couple of cool character marks in them already and just kept it clean and smooth. 

  

For the stain I got to use the Rustoleum Kona that I bought several months ago after hearing other DIY'ers rave about it and I have to say, I am a HUGE fan!  Kristin wanted me to wipe it off after as I went along.  I have not done that yet with any othe staining projects, but really liked the look of it and of course it dries a lot faster, so was able to do a 2nd coat almost immediately.  I just did 2 coats and sealed it and it was good to go.

Project turned out great and want to than Ana for all that she does!  Thanks for looking!

Console Table

Today is a big day!  Almost 2 years ago, I came across a post on Cara Wilkerson's blog, Live The Home Life, talking about Knock Off Wood.  I was curious so I clicked on the link and was hooked instantly!  Fast forward 2 years and now I have been asked by Ana White to be a contributor to her site!!

When she invited me to become a contributor, the first thought in my mind was how am I going to come up with something that she has not already done a plan for?!  After a couple of weeks, I found the Benchwright Console Table from PB and knew that was something we could use around the house.  Now, at a cost off $799.00, it was well above our budget, so if we wanted it, we would have to build it, and with Ana's plans, that is what we did. The plans are here and total cost for everything, not including paint/finish, was around $120.00, so a pretty substantial savings! Everything is pre-cut and ready to go.  Only recommendation I have is to not cut the end (breadboards) until you get the top put together, that way you insure a proper fit. 

Kind of hard to see, but you can see the Kreg Jig holes on the bottom of the 2 main pieces.  Make sure you get all of these done the first time around, kind of hard to do once you move along in the project.

Got the sides on

Bottom shelf attached and one side of the legs on

Other legs on

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Middle legs attached, make sure you get them centered, or your drawers will be off

Helps to have clamps on this project

Framing complete

My only concern with this project was doing drawers, this was my first attempt and was actually very easy to manage.  Important to make sure your cuts are exact so you have a perfect square, but since we did not use any tracking, there is a little room for forgiveness.

Drawers in and working!

Back view

Underside of the top, you get your moneys worth if you have a Kreg Jig!

Ready for paint & knobs or handles!

Kristin wanted a worn distressed look so she started by using a brown paint and water mixture.  There is not right or wrong way to do the watered down brown paint but you may want to play with it on a scrap piece of wood to get the color you want.  Kristin used about 50% brown paint and 50% water mixture.  The point was to have the wood grain be dark under the top coat of paint and make the natural wood look show through.  She painted on the mixture in small sections and wiped it off with a rag so the mixture acted more like a stain than a paint.  She did two coats of this but did not wait for them to dry in between and did not worry about making the coats even.  The top color coat will hide the uneven look of the brown. 

For the top coat she chose a turquoise and painted it on with a very dry brush.  Put the brush in the paint color and wipe off on sides of can until nothing is dripping and most wet paint is removed.  She did two coats of the color and let it dry over night.  It is very important that you let the color coat dry at least 24 hours. 

After the top coat was dry she sanded the top coat with a palm sander (using fine grit paper) and lightly sanded the areas that would get worn naturally as well as areas where the wood grain had some personality showing through which she wanted to highlight.  

And at it's new home in the house.  We put it inside to take pictures, has not been sealed yet, but Kristin likes it too much to even take it out to do that, so guess we will get around to that at some point!?  These pictures do not show how dark and beautiful the piece actually is.  I guess the lighting was bad when I took them, but you can still get the overall idea!

Thanks again to Ana White for asking me to do this for her site, it is truly an honor and we have already agreed on the next project and plan to start on it in the next couple of days, so keep checking back! 

For those that found us via Ana's site, welcome and thanks for looking around.  Hope to have you back again soon!