Building a Black Iron Pipe and Wooden Coffee table

My kids and I love to play board games.  However, whenever we played, the board game would not fit the ottoman coffee table we had so we would have to move it out of the way and play on the floor.  Walking though the store, I fell in love with the coffee table that went with my dining table in the kitchen.  However, I didn't want my house to be too matchy matchy.  On top of that, the price was over 1K so I wasn't jumping for joy at spending that much for a coffee table. 

Therefore, I decided to make the coffee table myself.  My dining table is made from reclaimed wood and has iron legs so I wanted my coffee table to be somewhat like that.  In the end, this is what I came up with my coffee table and I absolutely love it.

 

I always start my creative building process by scribbling down a drawing of what I think I would like and then I do my research.  I looked up square iron pieces to be similar to my dining table, but of course, I had no soldering experience.  I needed something adjustable so I thought of pipes.  I could get whatever measurements I wanted and put it together like lego pieces. 

I decided to get black iron pipes instead of galvanized ones.  I like the more rustic look and since I was making a coffee table, I didn't need the no rust feature of the galvanized pipes.  I learned rather quickly not to pick up black pipes with your hands because they are covered with grease.  Luckily, I brought some gloves with me when I was shopping (I never go to the hardware store with out them because wood+fingers = splinters). 

I did some research on how to remove the grease.  First I soaked the pipes in Trisodium Phosphate using the instructions on the back.  I found this at Lowes for a few dollars.  With a little elbow grease, I scrubbed the grease off after it had been soaking in the solution.  I used goof off to remove any remaining residue.

 

I quickly dried all the pipes (so that it wouldn't rust) and then started putting them together. 

 

I screwed the caps (which will be like the feet for my coffee table)  to a 4 inch piece of black steel nipple fitting.

 

Next, I  screwed the black steel tee fitting to the 4 inch piece and added a 8 inch piece to the other side.

 

To the center tee fitting, I attached a 12 inch nipple fitting with another tee fitting to attach the pair of legs together.

 

To attach the two pairs together, I added a center piece of black pipe that was 48 inches long. 

Finally, I added 4 flanges to the top of the 8 inch nipples that would enable me to attach it to the table surface from underneath.  I know there are more black pipes on the floor there.  I bought enough to make several different size scenarios.  Originally, my table was bigger, but I scaled it down a bit.  Once I got my leg measurements, I was off to cut the table top.

 

I bought 3 pieces of 2x8x10 and cut them to a length of 56 inches. 

 

Next, since the edges of the wood were curved, I went ahead and stripped each piece so that it would have a nice straight edge.

 

I clamped all the pieces together so that the edges would be straight and then I glued and screwed all the pieces using my kreg jig.

 

Initial assembly looked like this:

I'm well aware of the price tag on the pipes (this was before I cleaned the pipes).  I wanted to make sure my top fit the dimensions of the pipes before washing them.  Next, I sanded the entire piece to remove any rough edges.

Now came the fun part.  I used hammers, chisels, knives, my feet and whatever else I had to make the wood look old.  It was quite therapeutic :)   I wanted to make the wood look old and dented so I pounded it for quite some time.

I stained it with Minwax Walnut color stain that I already had.  I applied 3 coats of polyurethane with light sanding in between to the top surface and just 1 coat underneath.  

 

I added some metal brackets underneath for additional support.  Then I screwed the flanges in place. 

 

With some creative sliding (it is heavy), I flipped the table and voila!

 

So I lived with this table for a week before deciding that it was a little too tall for my liking.  I built it to the height of typical coffee tables, 18.5".  However, I decided that by lowering my table a couple of inches, it would look and feel better.  Even though everyone thought I was crazy because they did not agree with my thoughts, I went to the store and replaced my pipes and rebuilt my table.  I originally had a 10" pipes instead of an 8" ones.  

 

Here we are with my storage ottoman I had before.  I had just reupholster the thing a couple of months prior too, but it just doesn't work in our space anymore.  It once was perfect when we had toddlers, but now it was just too small.

I bought a new rug that made the room much bigger and the ottoman just looked tiny in it.

My new coffee table looked huge in comparison and for a moment I thought it was too big.

 

However, after living with it for a few months, I've discovered, it is indeed perfect.

 

 

I love everything about it.  It is super sturdy, we can fit our board games comfortably and best of all, my kids can dent, color, and scratch it up, and it only adds more character to the surface.  It is definitely a put your feet up type of table which is how we live.

In the end, I saved a bunch.  I ended up spending about a hundred for my coffee table and the best part of my table is that I love it more than the 1K inspirational one.

  

Have you ever built something only to find out that you had to rebuild it to make it perfect?  I do it all the time.  Each piece I learn something new that I am able to apply what I've learned to my next project.  I am so happy with my table.  It took me a while to get there, but I finally did.

Here's a run down of the materials:

3 - 2x8x10

4 - 1 inch floor flange fitting

4 - 1 inch black iron cap fitting

6 - 1 inch black iron tee fitting

4 - 4 inch length (1 inch diameter) black steel nipple fitting

4 - 8 inch length (1 inch diameter) black iron pipe

4 - 12 inch length (1 inch diameter) black iron pipe

1 - 48 inch length (1 inch diameter) black iron pipe

16 screws

2 metal brackets

1 box of tsp

1 spray bottle of goof off

1 quart of stain

1 quart of satin finish polyurethane  

Note that you can make your table any size you want.  I made mine to fit my space and dimension of my couch (and board games ;) )

Gel Staining the Front Door and Spray Painting the Door Handle

I know its been way too long since I last posted something here.  Is there anyone still out there?  Life's been a little hectic to say the least and while I am still working on a lot of home projects, I really haven't had the time or motivation to post them.  Working longer hours at my job and chauffeuring the kids around to all their activities has left me no time to really do anything else so a project that would normally take me a weekend or two to complete is now taking me months.  That being said, having a nice long Thanksgiving weekend has sort of rejuvenated me.  That and trying to upload my 2000+ pictures off my camera has left me looking back on all the projects that I haven't posted.

One thing that I wanted to do this past summer (yeah, several months ago!) was to beautify/update my front house.  While, cutting down bushes and trimming trees do a lot to maintain your home, I wanted to do a lot more.  On my to-do list was re-staining the front door, changing out the torn weather strip, updating my hardware, installing landscaping lights, replacing my door bell, installing cameras and changing out my lanterns for motion-sensored/dusk till dawn lights.  My outside list kept growing so I had to just jump in and pick something to start with.  

First up was refinishing my front door.  The problem was I wanted my door to "look" stained, but couldn't really just go out and buy any stain.  The reason being was the fact that I had a fiberglass door.  When I built my house, I didn't even think about the differences between doors.  I told them to build it like the model which they did, with a fiberglass door.  I was kicking myself in the butt this summer not choosing an all wooden door UNTIL I discovered all the benefits of a fiberglass door.  It doesn't weather as fast (most or all of my neighbors that have a wooden door have had to restain their door only 3 years after they moved in).  It took 8+ years before my door started showing signs of wear and tear and I don't have to worry about mildew or warping with my door. 

That being said, it was time to re-stain my door.  You can see the stain was faded and started to chip off.



In my research, I found out that I needed to use a gel stain in order to refinish my fiberglass door because fiberglass does not absorb like wood.  I thought, great, I'll just walk into Lowe's and pick out my stain color, easy peesy, right?  Hmm..nope.  The major box-stores didn't carry gel stain so I had to go to an actual paint store for it.  I ended up buying a quart of the Minwax Gel stain in Walnut color and Minwax Waterbased Helmsman Spar Urethane to seal the door.

    

After purchasing my stain, I had to wait for a nice weather day since I would be leaving my door partially opened while it dried.  I prepped the door by taping off all the areas I didn't want stain on.

I decided to paint the trim around the door as well so I filled in all the dents and nail holes that the builder neglected to do.

 

I also removed the hardware so I didn't have to worry about accidently getting stain on it.

 

I washed to door with some soap and water to clean up any debris.  When the door dried, I sanded the door to remove any stain chips and scratches. I cleaned off all the dust and started staining.  I applied two coats of the gel stain right on top of the existing stain and waited a few minutes before wiping off the excess. It was extremely easy as gel stain doesn't drip like normal stain.  In fact, it looks a bit like jello, but it really did make my fiberglass door look like it was stained wood.

From this:

 

To this:

What a difference, huh?  When I was done staining the door, I painted the trim of the door in the same color to freshen it up a bit.

A week later, I applied the urethane onto the door to seal in the stain and keep the door looking new longer.

Now on to the hardware.  My door lock was horrible.  It would stick, the key wouldn't work and the clear polish was peeling away from it so it made it look terrible.  My hardware looked so bad I was ready to replace it completely.  I had already chosen the new oil rubbed bronze hardware.  However, when I went to the store, they didn't have any in stock so I figured that I would, while I waited for the new hardware to become in stock, just spray paint my door knob with some oil rubbed bronze paint. 

I used this Rust-oleum Universal Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint to cover my hardware.  I already had it in my garage and have used it on many projects.  I love the way I don't have to prime the surface.  I sanded the hardware to remove what clear finish was still left on it.  I used a very fine grit sand paper so that the scratches would be light and easily covered with paint.  Then I covered the actual lock with some tape because I knew I did not want that to be painted.  I even sprayed the screws so that it would match the hardware.  After about 5 light coats, and several hours of drying, I placed the hardware back on my door and the verdict?

 

I LOVE the way it turned out.

I had intended this to be a temporary solution as I thought that with daily use, the paint would not hold up, but can I say that after 6 months of using the door knob daily, there isn't  a scratch on it?  It still looks new.  Also, when I removed the hardware and placed it back on, it seemed to line up better and now the door doesn't stick anymore.  It's been a win win and at this point, I don't plan on replacing it.  What I do plan on is spray painting all the other exterior door handles.

After I stained the door, I took the liberty of going ahead and replacing the weather striping on the bottom of the door.  Since I have a fiberglass door, it has a little groove on the bottom of the door that allows a weather strip to snap in place.  I bought the MD Kerf's Mount Door Bottom  to replace the existing torn one on my door.  The best part is that I get reimbursed from my electric company for the purchase for being more energy efficient.

 

I really love the way it turned out.  It doesn't look like much in these pictures, but it is WAY different up close.

 

Okay, so you can't tell from these pictures, but I also replaced the doorbell, but that will have to be in another post.  For now, I am so happy to step foot onto my front door everyday and the kids are happier too now that they can open it themselves with ease.

The total project was about $30 for all the stain as I waited for a 40% off day (it happens 2-3 times a year at sherwin williams and had a $10 coupon on top of that that I found on their website :)  I spent another $10 for the weather strip (which was reimbursed by my electric company).  For about 3 hours, it saved me $300 which was the quote to restain just the exterior side of my front door (I actually stained both sides so they would match), not to mention taking care of my door knobs.  This do it yourself project was completely worth it.

So how many things was that I checked off my list?  Restaining door - check, new hardware (well new looking) - check, new weather stripping - check and new door bell - check.   That's a lot, but oh so many more to go.  I can't wait to share them with you all.

How to make a Burlap Wreath

It's been awhile since I have made any new decor for my door.  When someone posted on FB asking if anyone could make them a burlap wreath, I took that as a challenge.  I actually went shopping for the supplies the very next day with coupons in hand.  Fortunately, everything I needed was at Hobby Lobby so it was indeed a one-stop shop.  How did it turn out?  I really love it.  I love the colors and I love the rustic look the burlap gives.

  

Here's what you need:  A wire wreath, pipe cleaners, and whatever color burlap you want.  I ended using 30 feet of the base brown burlap and 5-7 feet of the other colors. 

  

Use wire cutters to cut the pipe cleaners to 1/3.

 

Insert the burlap into the wire wreath, attaching with the pipe cleaner.

 

Once attached, make another loop by inserting the burlap through the wreath again.

Scrunch up the burlap and tie the loops of the burlap together using a pipe cleaner.

You can then use your fingers to fluff the burlap.

  

Continue until the entire wire wreath is covered.

 

Add your second color weaving between the loops.

  

Next, comes your third and so forth.

I used 5 different variations of burlap for this wreath.  I added an "H" to the bow just because I thought it would be cute.

    

I love the end result.  Total cost was just shy of $30 for all the materials (only because I had 50% off everything).  Therefore, without coupons, it would be around $60 for all the materials.

I had so much fun, I made myself a couple of more wreaths.

 

The more you make, the more materials you can reuse (the pipe cleaners, the base burlap, etc), and the cheaper it gets.  The color combinations are unlimited.

I'm glad that I took on this challenge.  My sister is too because that is the wreath I made her for fall.  I love the yellow flowers!  I think I have to make myself one, but alas, I'm out of doors ;).  Maybe next year.