Ikea Hack: Rustic Coffee Table with Storage

DIY Industrial Coffee Table with Storage

12/28/2017

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the Dremel tools used in this project.

Steph has been using the same coffee table/bench since her college days. We bought the faux leather clad bench for her dorm room from Target back in the day. It held up so well that when she moved to her home four years ago it moved with her to serve as her coffee table. It was starting to look a little ragged so she really needed to retire it but didn’t want to give up the storage it provided.

She came up with an idea to make a coffee table starting with a bookcase. She had specific requirements for it including portability (it needed to be on wheels) and it needed to have covered storage.

Video tutorial on taking an Ikea Kallax bookcase and turning it into an industrial coffee table.

We started with a basic bookcase for the shell.

Materials:

Bookcase/ Shelf unit
(4) 1 in. x 96 in. Aluminum Angle with 1/16 in. Thick (Home Depot)
(4) Metal Swivel Casters (Home Depot)
(2) Everbilt Trap Door Ring (Home Depot)
(4) Everbilt strap hinge (Home Depot)
All purpose brown masking paper (Home Depot)
Wood Glue
Contact Adhesive (Home Depot)
Stain
Poly

Tools:

Ryobi 18-Volt One+ 7-1/4 in. Circular Saw (Home Depot)
Kreg 24 in. Rip-Cut Aluminum Circular Saw Guide (Home Depot)
DEWALT 18-Gauge Cordless Brad Nailer Kit (Home Depot)
Orbital Sander (Home Depot)
Milwaukee General Purpose Hole Dozer Hole Saw Kit (Home Depot)
Husky Ratchet Tie-Down (4-Pack) (Home Depot)
Dremel Ultimate Corded 3-Tool Combo Kit with 15 Accessories and Carrying Bag (Home Depot)

The backside of the bookcase is now going to be the bottom. We secured the backing with glue and brad nails. We also reinforced the interior of each cube space with a square of plywood. With this square in place we could securely attach wheels to the bottom.

We used a faux leather finish on the sides using crumpled up brown paper and glue.

Paper was torn into small pieces, crumpled, dipped in watered down wood glue, then smoothed onto the sides.

Once dry, the paper was sanded then stained.

Polycrylic was used to protect the sides.

The aluminum trim was sanded to give it a brushed look.

The aluminum trim was cut to length with the Dremel Saw-Max.

The Dremel Rotary Tool with grinding tip was used to clean up the sharp edges.

We wanted the metal to lay flat on top so we marked where we needed to cut out the corner.

We used the Dremel Multi-Max to cut out the small corner piece.

All three dremel tools we used can be found in the Dremel Ultimate Corded 3-Tool Combo Kit.

We put a cutting wheel on the rotary tool to finish up the corner cut. These tools really come in handy for small cuts and work great for a variety of applications.

The metal was glued into place.

Wheels were added to the bottom.

The side corner pieces were glued into place as well. Hot glue was used to help hold the piece in place while the contact cement dried.

We found the Husky Ratcheting Tie-Downs to be the perfect tool to "clamp" the side corners in place while they dried.

The top was made from a scrap of plywood siding. It was cut to size with a circular saw.

To attach the recessed handles, we used a hole saw to create the right size hole.

We then used the Multi-max to finish getting the correct size hole for the handle to sit in.

The handles were screwed into place on the top of the table. Inside the table top we covered the backside of the handles with felt.

Two hinges were added to each side.

We really liked the way the table came together. The recessed handles were a late addition to the plan and are perfect as they keep the top clear allowing feet and stuff to be put on the top! Steph frequently needs to be able to move her coffee table out of the way so the addition of wheels makes this easy. The large interior allows for lots of storage of electronics, pillows and blankets and the large surface is a great play space for the nephews and niece!

We acknowledge that The Home Depot is partnering with us to participate in the The Home Depot ProSpective Campaign. As a part of the Program, we are receiving compensation in the form of products and services, for the purpose of promoting The Home Depot. All expressed opinions and experiences are our own words. Our post complies with the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Ethics Code and applicable Federal Trade Commission guidelines.

FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first!

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