(martini) Side Table

We recently emptied most of the contents of our living room and replaced it all with uber-cool custom furniture. Because of this, each new addition must be necessary, and make sense(look gooood).

The boy is taking his damn, sweet time buying a side table w/drawer to replace his ugly, but old standby table.

I was waiting for that precedent of purchase to then choose my side table to match. Well, I'm done waiting, and I'm done holding my martini, letting it get all warm and stuff... so I decided to make a little side table next to my corner of the chaise. My inspiration came from a recent instructable build of a coffee table.

https://www.instructables.com/id/plumbing-pipe-coffee-table/

It is a lovely build! I have made a couple of things with black iron plumbing fixtures before, and the selling point for me in my current fix was how stable and easy and solid it is. What I am referring to is the relationship between flanges, pipes and accompanying wood(as platform). It's a beautiful thing!

Here's what I came up with...

This is an old sign of my business, my second or third one, I think. It is HDF and will be simply awesome for cutting 2 discs.

I've decided on an 8" diameter and so have found a plate that is coincidentally that size. : )

Band saw worked great for cutting along the lines.

A quick hand-sanding around the edges and over the painted surface(to reduce any raised surfaces).

My vision was to have a very slim, minimal side table that would almost blend into the couch.

I had some microsuede that matched the chaise very closely. Good enough!

I cut a circle large enough to wrap over and staple down.

Method is to staple one side, then opposing side, pull tightly, then repeat this process ad nauseum until you have unloaded a cartridge or two of staples into the disc.

You want to hide that hideous staple parade with a covering of felt.

Mark out circle on felt, then cut 1/2" within that circle, making it a bit smaller than underside of disc but large enough to cover staples.

Cut out opening for flange, then glue down felt.

Once felt is glued down( I pressed down tightly, then put under heavy weight for an hour), place flange on to mark out screw holes.

Drill pilot holes, then screw into platform.

Connect pipe. Voila! Instead leg! How easy is that...

I created a long and narrow rectangle out of the same fabric and sewed a tube from it, as a jacket for the pipe.

Turn right-side out and slide over pipe.

Similar upholstering process as the previous disc, though this circle I cut a bit smaller, as the underside will be just at the floor and won't be visible.

This requires less stapling. (yay!)

I wanted to add another medium to this. Leather is cool, I have some, and it transitions the table nicely into the wood floor.

I cut a narrow strip about 27" long by 2" wide.

I used 1" ring shank nails to upholster into the HDF. They went in with no trouble. I spaced them out the length of the nails. Easy!

At the end I just overlapped the edge by folding it under and putting one final nail in.

More staples!

Leather has some stretch to it so this was pretty easy to get get a nice, tight fit.

I found some footings that would raise it above the ground enough, while providing some stability on the not-perfectly-even flooring.

I centered the flange on the base, penciled out the screw holes, then cut little x's with my blade.

I then drilled the pilot holes, attached the flange to the base and screwed the other side of the pole in.

Fun and easy!

Not much weight to do a bicep curl, but might as well because it sure looks like a barbell.

: D

This was a pretty easy project. It can be done in an afternoon, no problem. A fun, instant table that takes up little room and can be moved about at will.

Small materials list makes this something you could accomplish without having to buy additional materials:

2 flanges with matching size pipe, 24-30" long, some fabric and staple gun, some basic tools and a handful of fasteners.

~ ~ ~

And now to head down to the wood shop with some plywood to build His side table. Something elliptical, must have a drawer to stash his little man necessities, and definitely needs some EL embedded into it.