Remember how I confessed that my latest chair makeover was a roadside find that sat untouched in my basement for nearly a year?
Yea, ummm, the same is true of this cart turned industrial DIY coffee table. I picked it up at a yard sale well over a year ago now. From the time I bought it, I had planned on turning it into a coffee table, but one thing led to another and it just now got completed.
Just like the chair though, I think this one was worth the wait.
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Industrial DIY Coffee Table
We started with this:
I had used it to do painting on, so there were lots of different colors on it. After taking off the old wood top, I had this:
I painted the metal frame with copper spray paint to keep that metal look, but add a bit of color. After that, we started the process of cutting wood for the top and bottom.
We started with 1x6s for the top. We made them overhang slightly on each side, so they were each about 29 inches long. On the bottom, we used 1x4s. The cart was divided into three sections on the bottom by the bars, so each bottom side was 23 7×8 inches long and the middle was slightly smaller at 23 3/4 inches. As we cut the wood, we placed it on the cart to make sure it would fit. After it was all on the cart, we began the process of gluing down the wood.
We used Elmer’s ProBond Advanced glue to adhere the wood to the metal. This glue is known for bonding Mixed Materials like wood to metal. The great thing about it is there is no foam residue left after it dries. We glued down the wood on the bottom first. All I did was simply run a bead of glue right along the metal rails and then placed the wood on top of the glue. I did the exact same thing on the top of the cart. To really push the wood down onto the glue, we raided our nearby retaining wall for a few concrete blocks to weigh down the wood. I let the table sit like this overnight. The next morning, I removed all the blocks and started staining and painting it.
First, I sanded it to smooth rough edges and round the corners a bit. Next, I stained all the wood and let it dry overnight. I liked just the wood stain, but ya’ll know me, I wanted it to stand out a bit more, so I added some decorative “arrows” with white paint and FrogTape. I used a piece of tape to space between two pieces of tape, cause I’m lazy (or smart ) like that. Then, as shown in #3, you want to remove the tape where those two x’s are so that you have clean lines on your point. I did this by taking another piece of wood, lining it up on the tape, and running my X-Acto knife over it. After cleaning up my lines, I painted between the tape, let it dry and finished the whole thing off with a coat of polycrylic.
The ProBond Advanced glue worked perfectly – not one of the wood pieces will budge at all.
What do you think? Was it worth the wait?
Do you have any carts that could become a DIY coffee table?
If you liked this furniture flip, you should see these too…
How to Turn a Side Table into a Chic Bench – this can double as a coffee table, bench, end table and ottoman!
Bookcase turned Kid’s Dress Up Closet – grab an old bookcase and turn it into a magical destination for your kiddos!
How to Build a Desk Using an Old Kitchen Table – this desk might be slim, but it has loads of storage!
And you can always see all my furniture makeovers here.
You know you don’t wanna miss any of this crazy.
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