DIY: Custom Side Tables

If you were ever young and broke, you probably have a piece of furniture like this side table.

Reliable. Won’t break. Was really [really] cheap. But ugly as all get out.

But you just don’t get rid of it. Because it works! And [yikes] all the “grown-up” versions are expensive! This one cost $10! And it still works! That gorgeous new one costs $100/$200/$300!

Sigh.

That’s the story of our little cheap side table. We bought him from Bed, Bath and Beyond for $9.99 when we got back from our honeymoon. And every single time we moved, I tried to get rid of him. Honey, let’s get a real coffee table! Deaf ears.

Until this weekend.

A big issue with replacing this side table was that it’s a really nice low height. Like the perfect height to saddle up next to your couch and set your glass of…grape juice. Yes it was too small, and more than once I knocked something off of it. But oh the height. Can’t beat it.

Until this weekend.

Remember our custom bathroom vanity? Where we took a slab of live edge wood and cut it in half? Well, we didn’t toss the other half [it wasn’t cheap!]. Our plan all along was to turn it into two custom side tables. (this is the original slab of wood we bought).

Andy cut the wood into two pieces and finished it with the same Waterlox he used on the bathroom vanity. It looks exactly the same. Then we ordered…you guessed it…hairpin legs [we are mildly obsessed] to finish it off. They came in the same shipment as our master bed legs.

It took about 15 minutes to screw them on and suddenly 4.75 years of an ugly side table were washed away.

Hey there good-looking.

 

We set one table in between our two chairs under the picture window [the cute Target table I got will either go in our office or bedroom once we move things around.]

 

And we put the other by the couch. Compared to the old table, it is HUGE.

 

Honestly, they weren’t cheap. Each leg cost like $20ish I think. Plus 1/4 of the wood was probably around $50. So in total, each side table cost somewhere in the ballpark of $130. Not cheap. BUT it is completely custom, solid wood and should last us forever. If the top ever gets damaged [we are being extra careful, see the coasters?] we can sand it down and refinish.

I am really happy with how our living room has come together over the past year. We still have ideas about how to improve it, but we enjoy the space and hope our guests do too.

I think that is about the end of the wood-related updates here. This weekend we are taking our collective powers to a new frontier…the backyard. Pray for us.