We've finished another project! For those of you who don't know, my brother (Bear) and I work together to create these furniture pieces from mostly found, recycled, and thrifted materials. This piece is special to me. I'd actually found this old shutter at a large antique show. I had hoped to use it for something at my house (I can't even remember what I wanted to do with it now) but it didn't work, and I had this gorgeous shutter just lying around. I scored the legs at our neighborhood thrift store for $5 total!! I knew exactly what I wanted, and as usual, my brother not only came through, but made it even better than I'd imagined! He's pretty awesome like that.
So, first, the finished project.
I started with the inspiration of an old wooden shutter and some pretty cool metal legs. A couple of metal baskets scored at a thrift store got added to the pile. I didn't have to think long and hard over this one. (Seems pretty obvious, right?) So at this point, I handed everything over to Bear.
And that's where I (Bear) came in. I cleaned the shutter using vinegar and water.
Since the shutter had varying widths of end pieces, I cut the one to match the other.
The legs used were metal, and I wanted an aged look to them, so I used paint stripper to soften the paint.
After scraping the legs to expose some of the metal, I places all four legs in a bucket of water for a few days so rust could develop, giving them more of an aged feel.
The base of the table was constructed using white pine. I first stained the wood, then immediately applied white paint.
Since the stain was still relatively wet, it made scraping the paint much easier. I liked this approach better than sanding because I didn’t want the white of the pine to come out. This is a look at the paint scraped immediately after applying the paint. It leaves a nice residue.
The first picture shows “Hand scraped”. The longer you let the paint set, the different looks the scraping will produce. The last photo is when the paint was nearly dry. The scraping gives a more choppy look to it.
The wood pieces are cut down, and the legs attached.
Since the legs were metal, I wanted the table to have a vintage industrial feel to it.
I decided to go with these metal plates and screws. The shutter was going to be hinged to the back legs, so that it could open to reveal metal baskets inside. To do this I had to cut on of the supports off the back using a grinding wheel.
To screw into metal, you have to use self-tapping screws. I wanted the same screws to use for the wood also, except that it isn't a good idea to use self tapping screws to fasten to wood. The end of a self tapping screw is made like a drill bit, and if it were drilled into the wood, it would make a whole too big to allow for proper fastening. Therefore I also used the grinder to make a nail-head at the end of each screw going into the wood.
The metal baskets were just too large to fit into the table. They were too wide. So again I used my grinder to remove the spokes on the side of the baskets. There are two small and one large depth baskets. When the large basket was modified, the connection to the side was lost. Therefore, I used one of the spokes to create a connection to the other side by bending it around each other. This created a more stable basket.
There were also handles on the baskets that had to be removed. I grinded those off so that the baskets could lay flush with the top of the table base. This is what the large basket looked like after the modifications to fit into the table.
And now the baskets fit perfectly. The larger basket, sinking lower, is visible when the table is closed. (I love the idea of placing a stack of antique books in this basket since they would be visible!) The baskets match the hardware of the legs. And then, there is a better look at the baskets underneath the table.
The top has the original coloring. A coat of poly-acrylic was used to seal it and give it a nice shine. And that is, step-by-step, how I made a table from an antique shutter and four metal legs!
TA-DA!!!!
