It has been a LONG week! While my body wants to sit on the couch and watch reruns of the girlmore girls, my mind says I should be in the workshop building. SO! I sourced out some really great 22″ hairpin legs from a company based out of Columbus and will be using them to build a mid century modern sofa table.
Put your feet up, snack on some baby carrots and relax while watching my super fun video OR follow along below to build your own mid century modern sofa table!
Difficulty:
Beginner
Time Required:
Weekend
Cost:
Under $125
Materials Required:
2 – 1x12x8
4 – 22″ Hairpin Legs
1-1/4″ Pocket Screws
Minwax Special Walnut Stain
Valspar Chalky Finish Paint “Kid Gloves”
Minwax Polycrylic Semi Gloss Polyurethane
Tools Required:
Clamps
Kreg Jig & Accessories
Miter Saw/Ryoba Hand Saw
Power Drill
Wood Glue
Power Sander or Sanding Block
Sanding Paper
Foam Brush/Paint Brush
Material Cut List:
Top & Bottom of Box:
2 – 1×12 @ 58″
Box dividers:
4 – 1×12 @ 6.5″
Because I started late in the night, I’ll be making my cuts with my hand saw. New boards from big-box stores often have rough edges, so I’ll be cutting those off before cutting the lumber to length.
Using my combination square I mark about 1/2″ off the rough edge to get a straight guide for my cut.
Always try to stay just outside your mark when using hand tools. This way you can take some material off if you miss the mark, whereas you’ll never get that material back if you go over the line. Cutting wood can be as unforgiving as life.
This post just got DEEP!
Measure 58″, swing your board around and make your next cut. Repeat this one more time to get your (2) 1×12 boards cut to 58″.
A storm rolled in after my second cup of late-night coffee, threatening my precious electric. So I thought it would be better to retire into the house for safe harbor…and make the rest of my cuts on the power saw tomorrow.
How convenient, right?
Cut (4) pieces of your 1×12 to 6.5″. We’ll call these our “box dividers”. Two will go on the ends and the other two will be dividing the middle of our sofa table.
I’ll be using the Kreg jig to attach the box dividers to the TOP of the sofa table. The jig needs to be set to accommodate 3/4″ material. Pre-drill three holes on each of your box dividers.
Your box dividers should look EXACTLY like this!
Now that our cuts have been made, here is the rough layout!
From the end of your board measure out 19-1/8″, make a mark, and measure 38-1/8″ and make another mark. This is where we’re going to line up the center of our box dividers. Attach using wood glue and 1-1/4″ pocket screws. Once attached, fill in your holes with wood filler.
Keep in mind you can put your dividers anywhere your heart desires!
Except in-between us. We can never be divided.
Once your dividers are attached, flip the half table over and place your bottom 58″ piece on your dividers. We’re going to attach these from the bottom of the table using 1-1/4″ pocket screws.
Using a drill bit larger than the head of your screw, pre-drill three holes on each end of your bottom board 1″ off of each end and one in the center. This is called counter-sinking.
We’re going to hide these holes using wood filler.
Repeat the same process to attach the center box dividers. Once again, use wood filler once the screws are in place!
I decided to paint the inside of my table with Valspar’s Chalky Finish Paint in the color “Kids Gloves”. I made the mistake of painting before attaching the the bottom of my table, which warped the wood! If you decide to paint the inside be sure to do it after you assemble the table, even if it’s a pain.
Once the inside was painted, I applied a single coat of Minwax’s “Special Walnut” stain, followed by (2) coats of semi-gloss polycrylic, also known as clear-coat.
I took a romantic field trip to the drive-way with my 22″ hairpin legs. I decided to spray paint them black!
Here are the legs on the table!
My initial install of the legs had them touching like pictured above, but that left the table fairly wobbly. And with my babies actively trying to SERIOUSLY injure themselves EVERY DAY, I opted to re-install them about 1/2″ off of the front and back and 3″ from the ends.
Safe kids=happy daddy.
And that’s a mid century modern sofa table wrap!
Thank you for watching and reading! If you have any questions I’m always super happy to help to the best of my unprofessional abilities!
And if you thought this was fun, or you know, just OK, check out my Facebook page for other just OK projects: https://www.facebook.com/DIYwithRick
Hey Rick, love the sofa table, I am actually working to build one based on your design. I have come into a couple of snags with the project mainly due to the lack of equipment. my main question is what type of wood did you use? I am using cedar, which is great, however, the boards are slightly bent and I dont have a plainer. just wondering if there is better wood for you to use. I am excited for it to come out, its just going to have a lot of “imperfections”. This is my first major wood working project.
Thanks Michael! I used common pine from Home Depot. If I were to do this project again I would use 3/4″ Purebond Birch Plywood. With plywood you don’t get the kind of inconsistencies in the board and it won’t bow after being painted (like mine did in the video). Embrace the imperfections! I still have my first woodworking pieces in various rooms around the house and it’s fun to reminisce about all of the “creative problem solving” I used to get the projects built!
That’s a good idea, I hope to finish this up and maybe try again with the plywood. And yea, I think any project will always have imperfections, but just adds to the fact I built it! (or subtracts, tbd) I just stumbled across your channel on YT and dig it. Keep it up!
Hey Rick, I love this table and want o try it for my first DIY project. I don’t have any of the tools (except a drill and clamps) and I was going to have HD or Lowe’s do the cuts (or possibly purchase a hand saw). How would you modify these plans? Especially the part with the Kreg Jig, can I just do the top like you did the bottom? Also, are you counter sinking all four of the 6.5″ boards or just the ones on each end? Thank you!
Very nice job.