It's not difficult to make a coffee table yourself(photo 1). How to do it yourself? You need to choose the right material, know the structure of such furniture and have some skill in working with tools. If this is your first experience, then you can install a homemade table in the country. And if you gain experience, you can make excellent exclusive furniture for the living room of your house or city apartment.
Photo 1. Diagram of a transformable coffee table.
Material selection
A coffee table can be made from different materials. But most often, the following are used for its production:
- tree;
- plywood;
- glass.
Let's consider various options for making a coffee table from these materials. Structurally, a coffee table consists of the following parts:
- countertops;
- framework;
- legs.
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Manufacturing of countertops
You can take smoothly planed wooden boardsand connect them together with slats from the bottom. High-quality floorboards with tongue-and-groove joints are a good choice. The boards connected together already form a finished countertop.
Tools for making magazinetable. If the top of the table is made of plywood, then it just needs to be carefully cut to the selected size and sanded down the edges. The plywood should be thick enough. If there is a piece of glass of the right size, then it does not require any processing. You just need to drill holes in the glass to attach the legs. Drilling glass at home is quite difficult, but possible. For this, use a drill with a diamond coating. Drill the surface at low speeds, wetting the drill with mineral oil. To prevent the drill from slipping when you start drilling, it is recommended to stick a piece of tape in this place and mark with a cross the place where you need to drill the hole. Return to the table of contents</a>
Fabrication and fastening of legs
To make the simplest frame you needconnect 4 bars together to form a square or rectangle. The connection using a tenon joint requires some skills, so you can start by connecting the bars together with metal corners. The tabletop is fixed to the resulting frame. You can fasten it with nails or screws, screwing them in from the bottom, from the side of the frame. The length of the nails or screws should be selected so that they do not go through the tabletop. When this work is done, all that remains is to attach the legs. Plywood can be fixed with glue, as it is thin enough that nails will not go through it. For reliability, you can hammer small nails into the corners, but from the side of the tabletop itself. 4 nails will not spoil the appearance of the product.
Photo 2. Assembly diagram of the table.Wooden blocks, which are used as legs of the coffee table, are attached to the frame with metal plates. You can also use a tenon joint if you have already done something similar. If the table is large and the frame is large enough, you can simply insert the legs into its corners and nail them to the frame with small nails. For strength, the legs are fastened together with blocks, but if the table is small, this may not be necessary (photo 2). How to make a glass coffee table? In the case of its manufacture, bolts are inserted into the legs from their ends, inserted into the holes in the glass and secured on top of the tabletop with nuts. The protruding nuts can then be covered with wooden or plastic caps. These are the main points of making a coffee table with your own hands. If everything is done carefully, you will get a very attractive product. All that remains is to do the finishing, and the table can be used. Return to the table of contents</a>
Finishing
First, you need to prepare the wooden parts well.surface. To do this, the wood should be sanded. The final sanding is done with "zero". The finished surface can be painted or varnished. If painting is done, then you should use high-quality oil paint and a good paintbrush, from which the hairs do not fall out during work. If you plan to varnish the table, then you should use colorless furniture varnish. If the wood is simply varnished, the product will be light. But you can use stain, choosing the right color. With the help of stain, you can adapt the manufactured coffee table to any existing interior of the room. If you have wood carving skills, you can make an unusual product, giving it individuality. Sanding the surface of the wood in this case is not recommended. Naturally, the table should be made of wood. If we are making a coffee table with a tabletop for carving, then it should be made of boards that lend themselves well to such work. The easiest to carve on linden or aspen. Birch can also be used, but it is much harder. It is not recommended to use pine or fir for carving, as it is difficult to carve on them. You can start with the simplest table to understand the general principle of production in practice. Then you can experiment with this simplest design, making it more and more complex.</ ul>
