Five directions for the coffee table

One of the functional elements of a living-room that ties the whole room together, and gathers almost everyone's eyes into a fixed point of interest, is the coffee table.

Year after year, product designers and architects compete to produce the most interesting sculptural objects to serve as coffee tables.

If you don't have a mad passion for designing furniture, but still want to bring a breath of fresh air into your living room, today's article should familiarize you with a few projects, arranged in ascending order of difficulty.

Respectively five do-it-yourself approaches (en. "DIY - do it yourself") to bring an interesting element to your space that you can show off at parties.

1. EuroPallets and a handful of nails

Or as mom would say: "the student's approach", it lends itself very well in young spaces with Scandinavian influences, light-colored (or even white) walls and some industrial accents. It can be made from one or two standard-sized pallets, a few dozen nails, 4 standard feet "ac" (the latter, hard to find, already made, in the mioritic lands) and a protective agent well spread with a brush in a few coats.

Note: Don't forget to read the article written by Dan about wooden pallets, as he explains which ones are the best ones to use for such projects.

2. Lumber

If you've ever passed by the lumber area of Dedeman, MrBricolage, Praktiker, etc. and the smell of wood has awakened an inexplicable desire to produce a piece of furniture, here is a model to consider for your future personal projects on Saturday (because on Sundays even the grass doesn't grow).

3. Poplar pieces arranged in a welded arrangement

A very simple project with a very interesting execution secret. At first glance you'd think it's 70 equal pieces of poplar perfectly arranged on a wooden board and 'welded' together with an epoxy binder, but there's a trick behind the design that makes the object lighter in the table and easier to handle: it's hollow on the inside, and the poplar pieces actually flank a box made of chipboard or PFL.

4. Frame and glass - Evan's Coffee Table

If you still feel that the previous projects were not challenging enough, I invite you to admire the creation of BrickerAndBeam and try a similar project for your space. In theory it's simple: you need 12 pieces of wood and a piece of glass. In practice, I recommend using laminated wood for the surfaces that hold the piece of glass, and tempered glass (the kind you install in showers) with a thickness that's calculated correctly for the opening you have in mind for your project.

5. Rising Table - Robert Van Embricqs

And for the finale I saved one of my favorite projects (mainly because I like complicated things with lots of moving parts and lots of points where something can go wrong), namely a coffee table from the series Rising Furniture (furniture obtained by folding and vertical translation) of the architect Robert Van Embricqs.

If you have any questions about the construction methods of the featured pieces, ask us your questions in the comments area and we'll be happy to answer you as soon as possible.

Good luck!