Industrial Coffee Table – A Quick and Easy DIY

This industrial coffee table build was easy and I love the way it turned out!

My industrial Coffee Table is one of my favorite builds ever. We were in desperate need of a coffee table for our rustic industrial living room. For a while now I had been thinking of making a coffee table with wheels because I’m always pulling it right up next to the couch to work or eat on when I’m home alone. After a quick little search, I saw this table over at Shanty2Chic and I loved it!If you are looking to make this, first head over to Rogue Engineer and get the plans HERE.

I decided to use 2×4 for the top boards, mainly because I had a bunch of 2x4s. I laid them out and connected them with a whole bunch of pocket screws and wood glue. This is the moment I sat in glue and glued my pants to my leg. If you are following this tutorial, I wouldn’t do that part.

Then I added the sides and had to figure out how to make it a little taller. I needed about 3 1/2 more inches so I decided to cut up a 4×4 and add them to the braces underneath. I made four equal sized cuts, one for each “leg”. I attached the 4×4 pieces to the braces like so…

Then I attached the braces to the top of the table. Everything so far is held together by pocket holes and wood glue.

Time to stain. I don’t really have a technique, I just sort of played with layering all the stains I already had sitting around. I did start with a light coat of Minwax Special Walnut. I like this color for a base. It tones down the yellow and added a greyish (almost blue) tone. Then I just started layering (letting it dry in between coats) until it looked like this.

Then I added our initials to the side

I just grabbed a big pack of stencil stickers from Walmart, close to the poster boards and school supplies. I liked that they were stickers, because I could place them where I wanted and move them around as needed. Then I just traced them with a sharpie and removed the stickers and colored them in. I like the sharpie because when you put it on stained wood, you can make it bleed a little by just using a paper towel and a little elbow grease.

Now it was time to distress and tone it all down a bit. I used my friend Kim’s, over at Knock it Off Crafts, super technical technique of hammering, scraping and hitting things until it looked a little more weathered. Here is my super handsome little helper, back again.

We scratched the letters up pretty good so that are barely noticeable. I scratched and painted the top some more as well and ended up with this. Now it’s really starting to look like the industrial coffee table I was going for.

Which I decided was good, so then I flipped it over and stained the bottom. I didn’t do any of the distressing of colors or hammering it out on the bottom. For the sides and bottom, I just used three coats of the special walnut and finished with one coat of the Minwax Jacobean.

Then I added three coats of Polyurethane to the whole thing. I went with a gloss, but am wishing it was satin now. I might sand it out and put a coat of satin on, but I’ll probably just move on to the next project :).

Now the super fun part – the Casters!

They. Are. Beautiful. I was so excited when I pulled them out of the box. So fun.

The only problem was my measurements were off. I had looked online for the dimensions of the base plate, but somehow messed them up, so the didn’t quite fit on my 4x4s. 🙁

So, I had to add a piece of wood to the sides. I just used glue and wood screws.

I did have to stain that little piece of wood to match, but that was okay, because I also had to spray paint all the hardware.

I used the Rusteloum primer, followed by 3 LIGHT coats of their Oil Rubbed Bronze metallic spray paint. I was a little worried about painting the wheels, but they did great and it didn’t effect the way the wheels roll at all. The wheels are really cool, I ordered the swivel ones and they roll so nicely. I was also a little concerned about the painted wheels rolling around on my white rug, so I added a couple of coats of Rustoleum protective enamel.

Once everything was dry, I attached everything using self drilling hex screws (which was a work out). I added the little corner braces like the girls over at Shanty2Chic did. They don’t have a function but do look cool :).

Then, when everything was done I took this one final pic before getting the hubby and hauling it in.

Here she is all done. My new favorite furniture child, our industrial coffee table!

Ugh, that yellow paint is now gone!

Oh, and so I could pull it up to the couch easier, I added some cheap little handles to the couch side.

It works just like I wanted it too! If you want to see how I made those shelves that surround my TV and hide all my cords, check them out HERE.

I’ve including some affiliate links for your convenience, you can see my full disclosure policy HERE.

Industrial Coffee Table shopping list:

10 2x4s (for top slats and bottom braces)

2 2x6s (for the sides)

1 4×4 (for the legs)

1 1×4 (for the legs)

2″ pocket hole screw

wood screws – 2″

Wood Glue

4 casters (these are similar, the actual ones I bought are no longer available)

Corner Brackets (4)

Self Drilling Hex Screws (shorter ones for the corner braces and long ones for attaching wheels)

Wood Stain

Polycrylic

Spray Paint in desired color

Rustoleum Protective Enamel

Handles (optional)

The room is starting to come together, one piece at a time. Still so much to do.

April