A Cool Coffee Table Idea
Posted on June 28, 2009
Filed Under Apartment Living | 9 Comments
I almost let this slip my mind. While we’re on the topic of coffee tables, I wanted to mention a great idea that my friend, El Bad told me about once for a really cool, artsy coffee table. (BTW-Her name really isn’t El Bad. We just call her that for fun.)
It’s a much cheaper solution to a new coffee table to shine in your living room. Anyway, as he is my guinea pig on apartment stuff, I got Schultz to try it out in his living room and actually looks pretty cool.
We started with a used coffee table that we picked up at a garage sale. Then we placed a few interesting pictures of friends, some cardboard coasters from restaurants, some random CD covers, and some old, wrinkly baseball cards on it. Schultz organized them in an order that I couldn’t figure out, but the entire table top was completely covered.
Next, we took a number of old bottle caps and tacked them like a border all around the edges of the table top. At this point it really started to look like a piece of pulp art or something. Or something you might find at a novelty museum. Who knows? But it was really original looking none the less. Honestly, the options are limitless. You could virtually use anything that fits your taste to cover the table top. We just chose to use the pictures and stuff.
The final step’s easy. After the table top had “art” layered in the coolest way possible, we covered it with table-top glass that fit the size of the table and…bam! Instant masterpiece.
Schultz tried to sell it to me. I told him that he was crazy and that he is the only apartmentite I know that can pull off the “garage sale” look. He didn’t get it. He rarely ever does. Hopefully, you get it.
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9 Responses to “A Cool Coffee Table Idea”
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Cool trunk with good bones. There are so many ideas depending on your decor. You can add embellishments like wood appliques which can either be painted or stained. Check both Home Depot and Lowes because there a lot to choose from. You can add a piece of glass to the top and insert postcards, pictures, ticket stubs, really kind of memorabilia to form a collage. You can use tiles, stone or broken tiles to create a mosaic on the top. You can add feet to raise it up (these can be as simple as drapery finials, or fence post topper or you can find great selections at upholstery shops). You can add hardware of almost any sort to the sides to match your theme or decor. You can decopage items of interest on to it anywhere to make it look like a vintage travel trunk. Really the possibilities are endless, you can distress it further, you can add stain or glaze, you can paint it …
My first instinct would be a reddish brown leather couch, but that wouldn't be long enough..you might want to consider a more modern squarish shaped sectional…something long enough to encircle partially the whole table if you wish to use it as a coffee table…you could get that in an off white colour and build on pillows to add some colour with red undertones so the colours can blend in with the table. Since it is so large the couch should be deep to off set it's size. I don't know your flooring colour or type, so is hard to decide unless you are starting from scratch.
http://www.amazon.com
After being sure I was in the Books category, I put 'tattoos' in the search box.
Several good-looking books came up, but the one I think you may want to see is not available to 'Look Inside.'
You can you separate it by clicking on it and scroll down, past publication information and other books offered…(which may be of interest so you can scroll back to them if wanted, and click on them for the similar results)…to read reviews.
It has four stars under the title: one from Amazon's best.
Didn't note how many reviews given; sorry.
That book is:
"Traditional American Tattoo Design: Where It Came from and Its Evolution" by Jerry Swallow ('08)
[2nd ADD: Suggest you enter 'traditional American tattoos' in the search box to see a few books like this if interested, including Native American tattoos.]
Then there are some books you CAN 'Look Inside' (separate them the same way but click right on them for list of links to see inside the books):
"Great Book of Tattoo Designs: More Than 500 Body Art Designs" by Lora S. Irish ('07)
"500 Tattoo Designs" by Henry Ferguson ('04)
Another possible, but can't see inside, is:
"Tattoo Art and Design" by Editors of Viction-ary ('07)
There are many (over 72 thousand: which only means books that at least have the word 'tattoo' are included) if you want to follow safe link above.
[ADD: If you like UK (British) tattoos, post above provides a good link.]
http://girlsthemebedrooms.com/retro/flower-power-decorating-ideas.html
Just make sure you have all of the old finish off first before you start putting the finishing coat of polyurethane varnish on. Here is a site which realistically explains how to do this: http://www.inthewoodshop.org/projects/coffee2.shtml
A subscription to Wooden Boats Magazine would be nice. There is also a book called wooden sailboats with pictures of all different classes of wooden boats, with the only downfall being that there is a photo of Ted Kennedys boat. Shipwrecks around New England and Cape Cod are also good coffee table books.
sounds good.
You tell me. If you want to do it then do it. I have carpentry skills but I don't have the tools to cut down trees and make furniture out of them. I have a truck that I can go down to the lumber yard and buy pieces of what were once trees that someone cut down and used the tools that I don't have to make them into the pieces that I am buying. It is just easier that way. Trees by the way are not old junk. They burn very efficiently.