by Introduction
Some time this past spring, I decided that I wanted a DIY Pine coffee table for my guest room/library. It just so happened that my son was here visiting due to the changes that the pandemic brought to his career, and so it worked out nicely. I bought the items from the hardware store, and he built the coffee table.
Basically, I was blessed with a two for one deal: I was able to spend some quality time with him, as well as have him here to help me with some of the projects that had been sitting for a while. Either I was unable to do them because of not being handy with a drill and other tools, or I literally did not have the time because I was getting up early in the morning for work, and was too tired for completing projects when I got home.
Mission
I ended up going to the hardware store about three times. First of all, I was going to make a skinny coffee table, but the piece of wood that I bought was too short. I looked at the table and decided that the would wasn’t wide enough. In essence, the table would look too skinny. So, I set out to buy a piece of wood that was wider and longer. Come to find out, Menards stated that they do not sell lumber pieces wider than 12 inches. The store associate suggested that I place two pieces of wood next to each other and connect them together with some form of hardware from the hardware department.
The guy in the hardware department showed me several different pieces of hardware to connect the lumber together. However, he stated that he was more so biased towards one particular bracket. He enforced the importance of having hardware that could handle the weight of the lumber, and he’d had experience building a table for his mother, so I was definitely all ears to his suggestions. I decided upon a hardware piece called “mending braces”.
Unfortunately, I ended up going to the hardware store another time because some of the plumbing pipe flanges were bent. This was going to cause a problem with the stability of the table. I felt like a kid waiting to open his gifts on Christmas. Was this table ever going to happen? Well, it did.
I am very excited with the end result. The coffee table helped to make the library look like a library. The natural wood also helped to give the room more of an organic look. And lastly, the table is multifunctional: it serves as a holder for magazines, books, frames, mugs, and a footrest.
There are a couple of tips that I would like to give you in regard to building this table (according to my son):
- The more mending braces used, the sturdier the table will be. (Especially if someone decides to sit on it.)
- You want to make sure that the two pieces of construction lumber are as straight as possible before you start drilling the holes into the wood.
- The flanges should be as flat and stable as possible before you start drilling into the wood.
- Be careful that the wood that you select isn’t too split, or the table won’t last. (I like the worn split look, but not too split.)
Tools:
- (8) 1/2″ galvanized pipe flanges
- 2 packs of National Hardware Mending Braces (4 braces are in each pack)
- (1) 1/2″ 48″ galvanized pipe nipple
- (8) 1/2″ 6″ galvanized pipe nipples
- (4) 1/2″ 5″ galvanized pipe nipples
- 1 dril
- 1 screwdriver
- (6) 1/2″ galvanized tees
- (2) 2″ x 12 ” wide X 60″ long pieces of construction lumber (this is what I should have done; instead I bought one long piece of construction lumber had them to cut it down to size; either one works. The second option give you leftover lumber for other projects.)
- (16) 1 1/2″ construction screws
Execution
- Make a letter H with the plumbing pipe materials on both sides, connecting the 1/2″ 48″ galvanized pipe in the middle, per the instructions and picture below.
Take a flange, screw in one 6″ pipe nipple, attach one tee, and then another pipe flange at the bottom.
Attach a 5″ nipple to the tee in the middle, followed by a tee, then another 5″ pipe nipple.
Make the right side of the “H”.
Take a flange, screw in one 6″ pipe nipple, attach one tee, and then another pipe flange at the bottom.
2. Attach the 1/2″ 48″ pipe nipple to the middle tee of the “H” on the left side.
Create the Right H following the same instructions above, and then attach to the 1/2″ 48″ pipe nipple in the middle.
3. Lay the two pieces of wood next to each other, making sure to attach enough mending brackets for stability, staggering on the top and bottom of the wood.
Turn your structure upside down, laying it on top of the top piece of the table, using 1 1/2 inch screws to attach the pipe flanges.
Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
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