DIY | How to make a Recycled Wood Table with Hairpin Legs

A few weeks ago we got introduced to Mad Legger, a coffee and dining table leg specialist from the Gold Coast who was looking for someone to build a table by using their hairpin legs.

Perfect for us! 🙂

So I looked up some ideas on Pinterest and Lion started researching materials. We like to recycle materials rather than just going to Bunnings and get some standard wood.

But it’s not always easy to find something suitable. We looked at local trading places, went to second-hand shops, and looked around while driving through the streets if people dumped something. But nothing at all!

Until Lion found some old timber slabs laying in the bin at the Noosa Marina, close to his work.

After inspecting them for rot and woodworm he took the timber slabs home and built the table in one day.

Here is how you make a coffee table with hardwood and hairpin legs

Below I ve written down Lion’s note on how he made this recycled coffee table with hairpin legs in a few steps.

Start with deciding which sides of the timber wood you’d like to use.

The second step is sanding and planing the wood. The good thing about hardwood is that it’s not getting out of shape.

Try to keep the gap between 2 slabs as small as possible.
With these timbers, we were lucky that they were very even and straight. When connecting them I turned the worst side of the timber slabs up.

Because there is a lot of weight involved, I needed to work with steel. I went to the rubbish tip and scored myself some rusty but strong metal in an L shape. Why an L shape? Because it has the strength to carry the timbers.

The idea is that the metal L shape will be integrated into the timber ( see photos below )

Before screwing the timber and the metal together I placed some metal offcuts between the timber and the metal to reduce the height difference in the separate pieces of timber.

When the timber was set in the right place, I could start drilling the holes for my screws to go in.

As the hardwood of the table top is quite heavy I attached a few more screws to be sure it would hold it’s weight.

After that, the table top was ready to be cut to the right size. After checking the maximum length possible, I installed a guide for my circular saw to perform  a straight cut.

As said before, the timbers where very straight and it was easy to make a 90-degree corner. I measured both sides up to 110 cm and made another cut. The table top turned out to be 110×58 cm, where apparently an average Coffee table would be 120 x 60 cm.

After finishing off the tabletop it was time for the hairpin legs from Mad Legger to be attached. I placed them 2 cm from the edge and screwed them in.

To finish the hairpin coffee table, I used a clear varnish.

Check out the end result here ↓

Turned out pretty amazing hey?! 🙂

Are you inspired and want to make your own hairpin table? Check out the table legs available at Mad Legger here.