DIY for Dummies, make your own coffee table
AD - This project has been created in collaboration with Gorilla Glue
Would you like to build your own furniture but don’t know where to start? Think you might have two left hands or don’t own any power tools? Don’t let this restrict you! I teamed up with Gorilla Glue and came up with a super simple coffee table design that doesn’t involve any sawing or drilling!
The coffee table is made up out of 28 pieces of square timber that are simply stacked and glued together with Gorilla Wood Glue. It couldn’t be simpler, the only tool you need is a screwdriver to attach the legs to the bottom of the table.
I had the timber cut at my local lumber yard, this is something you can have done anywhere they sell wood, this saves you a lot of work and is perfect if you don’t own a saw. I often have timber cut for me, especially sheet material, the professional saw tables are way more accurate with measurements than I can ever be.
What you need:
28 pieces of untreated, kiln dried, square timber 47 mm x 47 mm, 80 cm long
A piece of thin ply (3.6 mm thick) 31 cm x 78 cm
4 Hairpin legs 20 cm tall, mine are from the Legs4furniture Etsy shop
24, 40 mm long wood screws
Electric screwdriver
Sandpaper
Masking tape
To make the table you need to apply a generous amount of glue to a piece of plywood and line your first 7 pieces of timber on the sheet. The sheet is slightly more narrow than your 7 pieces are wide. This is so you have a little overhang and can’t see the sheet when you look at the table. Make sure all the ends of the timber are sanded before you start building your table.
I like the timber ends to be uneven so I have little bits stick out, between 0.5 and 1 cm in a random order. You can make this length difference greater for a more dramatic effect or you can line them all up perfectly. I like how the light plays with the slightly uneven ends creating a lovely texture to my table.
To make sure you start with a stable base wrap your first layer of wood with masking tape and let the glue dry for half an hour.
When you finish stacking and glueing all the timber you need to clamp the table to keep all the wood in place whilst the glue dries, I used masking tape, make sure the tape is on as tight as you can. Let the glue dry for 24 hours.
The next day remove the tape and flip the table over, be careful the table will be heavy. Line the legs up with the corners of the plywood and screw the hairpin legs in place with your wood screws. Use screws that are long enough to go through the plywood and half way through the first piece of timber.
Put the table up so it’s the right way round and have a final check with your sandpaper that the sides of your coffee table are nice and smooth. You can oil, varnish or paint your table but I like to keep it just as is.
I love my new coffee table! It took me just an hour to make and then another 20 minutes the next day, super fast and super simple!
Gorilla Wood Glue is super strong so my new table is a sturdy build and by having the wood cut for you it’s a zero effort build. The metal hair pin legs give a nice industrial look to the stacked wood coffee table, I like keeping the metal bare but you could spray paint them a fun colour. I think mint green or bright yellow would look real nice.
The slight difference in how I stacked the wood gives the edges of my table a lovely bit of texture, I especially love how the light hits the end creating small shadows.
When you stack your timber make sure you keep the prettiest looking pieces of wood for the top and the sides of your table. Hide the pieces with slight colour differences of lots of knots in the middle of your table.
Have a look at my tutorial video to see how I build my table
