For the past five years I’ve used a coffee table that I purchased from Craigslist. Originally I was really excited to upholster it in burlap from an inspiration that I believe came from Rachel Ashwell. It worked well for a while but because I have a cat, I had to reupholster it every 6 months to a year. Worse, in the final days of my last laptop, I had to put it on ice packs to keep it from overheating, which then developed a leak of blue stuff on my white ottoman. Needless to say, I had enough of that coffee table and was ready for something that required less maintenance. I did a final re-upholstery of that table (see below).
The technique is incredibly easy. After cutting a piece of material large enough to fully cover the upholstered portion of the bench, I use a small staple gun to secure the material to the underside of the bench, stretching it tightly as I work my way around the bench. You always want to start with securing the midpoint of each side first and then work your way around the rest of the sides.
My next coffee table inspiration came from Dan, from HGTV’s online show DanMade. He made a very simple reclaimed wood coffee table that has a really dramatic impact. See the image here. I couldn’t find wood of the correct thickness, but I had purchased the remnants of a table (with no legs) from a furniture warehouse sale and figured I would use that wood. The effort required about 7 cuts with a table saw, some wood glue, clamps, screws, and casters. My finished table is below. I wish I had used larger casters, but they can be expensive and didn’t want to end up spending a lot of money on this project. Being on wheels; however, is probably the best thing for a coffee table, I don’t know how I used to manage!
reclaimedlivingblog 