Coffee table upgrade!by lofgrenIntro

Intro: Coffee table upgrade!

Summary: Extra storage and a top that raises up to meet you - and your needs!What's the job of a coffee table these days?Rest your drinks on?A stable ...

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Step 1: What you'll need..

Tools I used..Screw drivers (electric driver/drill makes this more fun)HammerPinch/wrecker bar or something similarly thin and strong to prevent you b...

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Step 2: Dismantling the old..

After gathering my tools into the lounge so that I could finish watching the movie *grin* I began to dismantle the table.I started by removing; the dr...

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Step 3: Now that you've broken it, what is the plan?

Time to make some choices..Hinge the table top from one side? - I chose not to. You'd either have to remove everything off the top or tip everything ...

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Step 4: Working out the hinges..

Okay, so I didn't take photos of the scrap wood I used to get rough measurements.. but you will get the idea.I used the scrap wood to confirm my assum...

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Step 5: The storage..

I then added supports for the tray shelving above the drawer and placed the 3ply wood into position.Note:Check the pictures..By this stage I have alre...

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Step 6: Surface preparation..

Okay.. the structure is there, now it's time to prepare all surfaces and put it back together..I used a belt sander to remove most of the previous sta...

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Step 7: Reconstruction..

Put it all back together and check out how it works..Updated instructions-Apologies - seems I was a bit over the whole thing by the reassembly stage a...

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Step 8: Stain and seal it..

I bought a Wattyl product that both stained and sealed in one go - it was cheaper than separate stain and seal products.Unfortunately, the finish on t...

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Step 9: The Final Product..

Bah! I took a break during the middle of this project (In fact, we got a new cooker, fridge and rangehood, so I butchered the kitchen benches apart to...

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Step 10: The bonus round.. Make your own coffee table.

So, you've decided to make one yourself - from scratch!Here's something that I've drafted up following several requests. I'll work on it more when I g...

Summary: Extra storage and a top that raises up to meet you - and your needs!

What's the job of a coffee table these days?Rest your drinks on?A stable surface for the odd TV dinner?Rest your feet on?How about storage?What about laptops? Ever bent over your coffee table to use your laptop? How about sitting on the floor and trying it?

Several years ago, we bought a coffee table that was pretty much what we wanted.It was large, rustic-looking and solidly built.. but a bit high!

We'd find that we'd sit back on the couch at the end of the day and put our feet up, only to find the coffee table was so much higher than the seat of the couch that it would soon be biting into our achilles tendons.

It was last day of my holidays and I found myself sitting back, watching "Hot Fuzz". After shuffling my legs about on the table trying to get comfortable I thought it was about time to put a long held plan into

action.....

So, I checked with the boss and she liked the sound of my idea - mod the coffee table or get a new one!

Goals..-Lower the coffee table-Add storage area/s-Add some kind of funky lid to get to the storage areas