Coffee Table With Storage

This is a very simple design that I made using only found materials. The base is a steel basket that was being thrown away at an office building. The feet are leftovers from a storage rack. The table top is wood from a pallet.

Materials:

4 - 1" x 6" pine boards (1 pallet has enough for this project)

2 - 1" x 1" x 4' square dowels (you can trim down a board from the pallet or purchase these)

26 - 1 1/8" wood screws

1 - basket for the base

4 - adjustable feet

1 - can of clear spray paint (or color of your choice)

Tools:

- Some kind of wood saw. I used a band saw and a small hand saw for the tapered edges

- Drill

- Screw driver bit for drill

- Drill and tap the correct size for your adjustable feet

- Sandpaper (optionally use a powered sander)

- Cut the table top planks to your desired length. This depends totally on the size of your basket, so lay some planks on top first and see what looks right.

- Lay the cut planks together how they will be assembled for the table top and use it to mark and cut the square dowels. You need two long dowels on the end to hold the outer planks, two shorter dowels to hold the inner planks together, and two very small pieces to hold the table top from sliding on the basket front-to-back. Notice that I cut the ends of the dowels at an angle to give it some style and to help hide the dowels when you look at the table from the top. The angles were free-hand cut with a hand saw and using the first cut angle to mark all the other angles so they came out the same.

- Use the formulas in the picture to mark the locations of the dowels and screw them into place. You may want to use clamps to hold the table planks tightly together while doing this. The very small front-to-back stops can be measured in the same way, or you can place the table top on the basket and mark their location by eyeballing it.

- Lastly, sand and paint the wood.

There are many different types of feet that could be used. Rolling casters may interest some of you, a wooden block might do the trick, a bolt with some kind of soft pad could work (essentially what I have in the picture), or some other fancy thing. If you use a caster or the bolt style like mine, a hole needs to be drilled for each foot. I chose to drill the hole and use a tap so the foot screws into the basket. That eliminates the need for a nut to hold the bolt in place.

- Drill holes for the feet using the proper size indicated by the tap you will use

- Tap the holes for the bolt diameter and thread pitch of your feet

- Screw the feet in and use a flat surface to level the basket by turning the feet further in or out

You're done!