Mid Century Modern style Coffee table

DIY

Today I want to share the new coffee table I made for our living room!

Drawing on my inspiration from the 100% design exhibition, where the use of plywood and metal hairpin legs seemed to be trending for Autumn/Winter, that is exactly what I've used!

This is such an easy make, almost self explanatory....but I will show you some neat little tricks that you may need should you want to make this yourself....because Plywood is notoriously difficult to cut without splintering!

So all you'll need is a piece of plywood, gloss paint and the hairpin legs.

I used 15ml thick plywood from Wickes and You can buy the metal hairpin table legs on e-bay.

In terms of tools, you'll need a pencil, some paper to make a template with, a Stanley knife , a jigsaw, sandpaper, some screws , a drill and a screwdriver...

The first thing I did, was actually to paint the surface of the plywood with 3 coats of white gloss!

The reason I painted the wood BEFORE I cut it, is because this will help prevent the plywood from chipping when cutting it!

I decided on on an oblong oval shape for my coffee table.

On the underside of the plywood (where I didn't paint it), I sketched out a curved line by eye in one corner of the wood. I simply copied this curve onto the other corners by cutting out a paper template with that curve, then I traced around it on the other corners (flipping the template for the opposite corners)

Like I mentioned before, Plywood is notoriously tricky to cut without it chipping along the cutting edge, and cutting a curved line makes it even trickier!

I painted the top of the table, so that side should be alright, but in order to get a nice cutting edge on the underside of the wood (now facing upwards) I have a few more little tricks up my sleeve!

The first thing I did was scoring along the curved line with a Stanley knife. This should prevent the plywood from splintering away later....

I Then used a pen to emphasize the curved line that I want to cut along....

...because as a final preventative measure, I also covered my cutting line with masking tape...(also on the other side) and the pen makes the line easier to see!

Most importantly you'll want to make sure you use a new, fine toothed blade in your jigsaw!

You should now be ready to start cutting (Phew...finally hey??)

When you're cutting, aim just outside the pen line.This way, if there any splintering in the surface of the plywood, it should fall on the "right" side of the scored line!

This all may seem like a lot of fuss for just cutting some wood...but trust me, taking all these precautions before starting cutting will minimize any risk of the plywood chipping along your cutting edge...and definitely worth it for a nice neat edge!

Finish off by smoothing over the edges with some 80 grit sand paper.

Now all you have to do is position the metal hairpin table legs, drill some pilot holes (being careful not to drill all the way through the wood) and screw in place!

Flip over, and voila: A Mid century modern style coffee table:

Easy, really...don't you think?

I love it!

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