DIY Mid Century Modern Inspired Side Table

If you had told me when I was in Interior Design school that I would one day make a DIY Mid Century Modern inspired side table from two lamp shades I would have laughed and told you we would both be crazy!

This week we are busy around our house finishing up a renovation project of a mid-century modern-inspired entry for the One Room Challenge©.  One of the small projects I completed for this challenge is a unique side table I built from two very unlikely items.  Continue reading to see how I made a one of a kind DIY Mid-Century Modern Inspired Side Table for our entry space.

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This post is part of the ‘Do It Over’ Designers link party.  A group of designers who take something old and/or unused and ‘do it over’ into something new. These items can be found in closets, barns, garages, yard sales, thrift stores, you name it!

 

 

Turning a thrift store find in to a one of a kind table.

When my husband and I finally started the long awaited renovation project for our entryway, I had in mind to find a small table or plant stand to sit beside the mid century Tulip chair I had already purchased at a thrift store.   I have a weakness for mid-century chairs and will snatch them up immediately in a thrift store even if I don’t have a place to put them at the time.

To create a cozy little reading spot in the entry, the Tulip chair needed a companion table. 

In a local boutique store, I had seen a small table made from a lampshade frame and a round piece of wood and I thought it would be perfect for the little corner vignette in the entry. When I went back to purchase the table, the vendor had closed shop on her booth and the tables were gone!

 

 

Finding no other affordable options, I decided to try and make one of my own.

For weeks, I browsed one thrift store after another, and could not find a thrifted lampshade with the right shape or height anywhere. Further online shopping for table options just lead to more expensive tables that were also too big, or the price was right but the wrong look.

Determination kept me returning to different thrift stores as the weeks continued, searching for just the right table that was going to magically be waiting for me.

It was actually my husband who found an unlikely but brilliant solution for the table I was envisioning.

At one of our shopping trips together, he pulled out these two metal lampshades and brought them to me.

 

 

“If we turn these two lamps shades upside down and connect them together do you think this would work?” he asked as he held up the two lamps shades together.

The minute he held up what looked like the classic mid century hourglass shape created by connecting the two metal  lampshades together, I saw the true vision for a side table with a modern look.

Have I mentioned yet how much I love how much this man of mine has embraced mid-century modern style?  And the fact that he has become just as much of a DIY enthusiast as I am?

Taking those two metal lampshades, which only cost $4.99 for the set, we were able to create a unique DIY mid-century modern-inspired side table for our entry makeover.

 

 

At first I was going to glue the two lampshades together using E6000 glue.  But my husband took them to the garage and quickly welded them together to create a metal base for our table the same day we brought them home.  That part I really didn’t get a chance to photograph but this is what he brought back to me to work with.

 

 

Spray paint is obviously the easiest choice to cover all of the links and chains of a metal lampshade so I spent an afternoon applying several coats of Rust-Oleum UltraCover in Rustic Orange in Satin.

 

 

For the top and the base of this DIY side table, I purchased two round wood cutouts from Michaels.  One is 8″ for the base and the top one is 12″.  You can find similar round-cut pieces of wood at Home Depot or your local hardware store. 

 

 

Each wood circle cutout was sanded down with an orbital sander and hand sanded, and then given five coats of Varathane Wood Stain in Red Chestnut.

Once it dried overnight, a clear coat of four layers of Minwax Polycrylic Semi-gloss top coat. The entire process took a couple of days to complete.

 

 

After allowing it to fully dry for 24 hours, it was time to put the table together.

Relying on some old design skills, I measured and marked the center of each wood cutout with a pencil.

 

 

Then I measured off the diameter of the metal lampshades, and drew a circle of dots around the middle point of the wood cutouts as a guide for where to glue down the base shape of the table.  I repeated the same steps for the smaller wood circle.

 

 

 

 

I used clear Gorilla Glue to attach the wood cutouts to the base and top of the table, and put a couple of books on top to help secure the wood circles while the glue dried.

 

 

 

This DIY Modern Side custom table cost me around $30 to make and is definitely a one-of-a-kind conversation piece.  Not only do I think the table looks awesome with the Tulip table in the entryway, I am so happy with the way it turned out. It is such a unique design for a side table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be sure to visit all of the other talented artisan and bloggers who participated in this month’s ‘Do It Over’ Designers Challenge listed below.

 

Southern Sunflowers

Unique Creations by Anita

My Hubbard Home

Sum of Their Stories

The Apple Street Cottage

Birdz of a Feather

Exquisitely Unremarkable

Little Vintage Cottage

Modern on Monticello

Pandora’s Box

Purple Hues & Me

Tea and Forget-Me-Nots

 

Hugs,

 

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Proverbs 3:6 “Seek God’s will in all that you do and He will direct your path.”