A few years ago, we moved to Seattle for the summer. I had an internship opportunity, and Austin came with me. This was the first time the two of us were living together on our own (we had only lived together with 4 other roommates before this). So we packed up my little Subaru, and trekked up to the city. To minimize our load, we decided we would try to sublet a furnished place, or just craigslist/thrift some cheap furniture when we got a place set up. I still remember how our little pup (she was 5 months old at the time) looked sitting in the back seat with about 3 square feet of room. There were even things balancing above her in the car. When we made it up there and settled on an apartment, we scoped Goodwill and found a $15 coffee table. It was basically the only piece of furniture in that apartment. We sat on large outdoor pillows and slept on a blow up mattress. For three months. We managed to squeeze the coffee table into our car on the trip back (thanks to some of our family coming up to visit and transporting some stuff home in their cars), and it has been with us ever since. This thing has seen better days, and I frankly hated it. It  was cheap and the laminated sides had begun to crack and fall off. I was so excited to be rid of it, that I don’t even have any “before” photos, but this is how we built its replacement.

We purchased some 1″ galvanized piping from the orange store, along with 8 flanges and 4 T-fittings. We decided we would use 36″ pipe for the width runs (stock size) and then use 1 10″ piece and 1 6″ piece for each leg (connected with the T-fitting). We assembled the two legs and spray-painted them.

At the orange store, we also picked up some 2″x6″ boards, that we got cut to 48″ lengths. This was before we got our miter saw. We used 8 boards for the table top and 6 boards for the shelf.

I stained them with Minwax Dark Walnut. In my pajamas.

The we butted the boards together and attached on the back with a spare 1×4 pine board.

The top.

The shelf.

Followed the stain with 5 coats of Deft Satin Brushing Laquer. This gave it a crystal clear finish, with the slightest sheen. Really brought out the color of the stain.

And here she is. The flanges were used to attach the legs to the table top, and the bottom shelf rests on the 36″ wide pipes, secured with pipe clamps. This puppy is massive, at ~45″x48″ and ~20″ tall, we can comfortably sit at this table and eat dinner. And there is room to spread out, then store everything underneath. I need to get some baskets to help organize the clutter, as we still tend to spread papers and miscellaneous items around the top. We are thrilled with her, and she is a huge step up from the tiny coffee table we had previously!