When I built my Pottery Barn style desk, I had to take extra steps to ensure that the legs were installed in a sturdy fashion. I detailed those steps – adding the tightly fit aprons, most importantly – in my how-to guide. However, if you want to just build a simple farmhouse table without drawers, I wanted to let you know that there’s a much easier way to do it!
My Home Depot is making it much easier for me to build my own furniture. They now have a selection of table legs of many lengths:
I found this all in the section with the different types of wood trim and moulding.
Next to all the legs that are sold at Home Depot you’ll find metal top plates. To install the legs the easy way, buy the metal top plate. The idea is that you install the plate on the bottom of the table top, then screw the leg in.
Just like that, you’d have a table on your hands! You’d probably want to run two support boards across the bottom of the desk, perpendicular to the top boards. This would provide a little extra strength under the table top, since the planks are only joined with dowels and glue.
I know this isn’t a detailed tutorial, but I wanted to let you know about this option in case the idea of building the full-blown desk with drawers scares you!
I did manage to get the chairs refinished, re-built (where they needed it) and the seats and backs reupholstered before leaving for Vegas. However, when I went to attach the backs to the chair frames, I realized I didn’t have the right size screws, and it was too late to go to the store. So that’s all I have left, and then I can sit in those babies and really blog the heck out of my refinishing process.
It’s only about 5 inches wider than the old desk, but it feels so much more spacious.
In addition to staining it, I want to add a false drawer front to the space between the two drawers, so that the front of the desk looks more polished. I know nothing about furniture design, so this has all been about figuring things out as I go.