Thrifted Cubbies to Mid Century Modern Coffee Table

Hi! I’m Jen and I blog at Fresh Crush. I’m here again with a new project, it’s pretty special, and can’t wait to share it with you! Remodelaholic and I are teaming up to bring you new mid century modern coffee table as, one project, two ways!

It all began when I found these cubbies at my local Habitat for Humanity, I knew I could make them into something special. I’m still not sure what they were originally. Any guesses? I got them home and just knew… coffee tables! We are nearing the end of a big renovation at home, and these would be perfect for our new rec room / living room!

When Cassity told me she wanted to take up the challenge of recreating these special little cubbies and sharing the new mid century modern coffee table plans with all of you — I jumped at that opportunity! How fun is that?

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First, I needed to clean up my wood. It was a little stained and worn, but the combo of a belt sander, and a mouse sander took care of that — revealing that nice fresh pine below.

After a quick slick on Varathayne, I was ready to add the legs.

I was using my favorite — hairpin legs (you can also find similar ones on ebay)! I positioned them into each corner, and measured the distance in from the edge of the table to the leg base, to ensure they were all sitting symmetrically and evenly within the table.

I marked each drill hole and used a drill bit to pre-drill my holes as to not encourage any wood-splitting when adding my screws.

Round head screws finished things off, and held everything together nice and snug.

I flipped it over and it was sturdy as a rock! I couldn’t wait to pop it into place!

We were still living in our temporary cabin (during some pretty major renos at home) during this project. So let’s take a peek at my handy dandy new table in this pretty, rustic setting. I think it fits right in!

The cubby aspect is perfect for keeping your magazines and coffee table books in order. I plan to refinish the second cubby, identical to this one. Together, they’ll make a great “cube” for snacks, and dish-ware when entertaining. And on their own, a relaxing set of mid century modern coffee tables when hanging with the family after a long day.

And by using 8 inch hairpin legs, the table ended up resting at 18 inches tall. The perfect perch for tired feet at the end of the day. You may want to measure your own furniture to find the most comfortable height, as there is a wide selection of hairpin leg lengths to choose from.

I’m loving the refreshed pine top. It turned out to be a fantastically casual table, that will fit into a wide range of decor styles. My future rec room will be a little mid century mod. I think it will be perfect in its new home. What do you think?

Pop over to my blog for my full story on how refinishing these beauties turned out. Let’s see what the brilliant Remodelaholic team came up with… take it away Justin!

Build It: DIY Mid Century Modern Coffee Table

Click Here to Get a Free Printable Version of this Building Plan

If you’re not lucky enough to find a set of cubbies like Jen, here are the project plans that we came up with for this mid century modern table with hairpin legs.  With a little bit of table saw action for shaping the corner you could have this very table in your own living room.  I will start of with a list of tools that will come in handy.

Tools

• Table saw
• Miter Saw
• Router
• ¾” Cove with Ball Bearing Guide Router Bit
• Nail gun
• Sander

Materials

• Wood for top and bottom panels – Your choice of plywood or wood boards glued together to create the right width
• 2″ x 2″ Wood for corners
• Wood Glue
• Brad nails
• Sand paper

Cut List

• (4) 24” x 1 ½” x 1 ½” – Corners (see diagram for 6 steps to shape it)
• (1) 29 1/2” x 24” x ¾” – Bottom (length includes the tongue)
• (1) 29 1/2” x 24” x ¾” – Top (length includes the tongue)
• (2) 24” x 5 ½” – Sides (width includes the tongue)Front ViewSide view

Construction Steps

Sequence of shaping the four corners

1. Cut to length or you can leave long for shaping, then cut to length
2. Cut out ¼” wide and 1/4″ deep groove on two sides
3. Route out cove with 3/4″ radius bit with ball bearing
4. Rip one pass of 45° bevel on table saw 3/4″ from the arc of the cove cut
5. Rip twice a 22.5° bevel on table saw 3/4″ from the arc of the cove cut
6. Sand off small edges to complete the rounded look of the corner

Bottom and top boards

1. Cut the length and width
2. Cut out the 1/4″ tongue on short ends of the boards with router or table saw

Assemble

1. Start with bottom
2. Attach the bottom two corners with wood glue and nails
3. Attach the two sides
4. Attach the two corners to the top panel
5. Attach the top assembly to the sides
6. Screw in the legs to the bottom.  offset the legs to about 1″ in on all sides.

There you have it.  Great plans for a mid century modern coffee table that you can make and enjoy.

Be sure to let us know how your turns out.

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