Saturday, March 21, 2009

hardware store

The most recent payday I went to the closest thrift store to try to find something, anything, interesting, and after I found nothing, went to the hardware store, not really expecting to find anything there either. After some wandering around though, I found these small circular tapered legs, and after some more wandering, right next to them (I had to wander before it was pointed out to me) I was directed by the store staff to angled mounting plates... for under $24, I got four angled, tapered legs, wood glue, a wood saw, and a ceiling hook.

I wish I took before pictures for this project, but alas, I didn't. Picture, if you will, an average Ikea desk, with one drawer to the right of where you'd sit, and a pull-out keyboard platform under the main desk, the whole thing rectangular. I removed the keyboard platform and drawer, and sawed off the desk from the drawer section to the right. This revealed a nasty looking side section from where the main desk and drawer section separated, so that side became the new table's bottom. On it I found the center, drew some lines to the corners, and installed these legs angled outwards from the center.


The whole thing was way easier than I thought it'd be. The fact that the legs weren't stained worked out in this case because the wood on the desk was so light, although next time I use some, and there definitely will be a next time (they have longer and shorter lengths of legs), I'll probably stain them. This worked out perfectly for us, because the desk was inherited from an old roommate, and was just taking up space in our extra room. 



I honestly spent forever looking for these online, thinking for future crafts I'd have to rely on hairpin legs; don't get me wrong, I think they're excellent and I am definitely using them in the future, but one style could certainly become overwhelming, and in their case, costly. Especially for me. Cause I'm poor.


Finished project! Now if only I had $1500 to drop on a predicta.


*edit*

The original desk looked like this one without the hutch on top.

6 comments:

  1. Nice work! Great find too. I love hardware stores.

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  2. What a beautiful piece you made! I am about to begin work on making an ottoman from used wooden wire spools (the DIY is on designspongeonline.com) and I've been trying to find tapered, angeled wooden legs. Thanks for the tip!

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  3. Do It Best has these online and will ship them to a local hardware store for free - very handy if you are like me: no car and no local Lowe's.

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  4. where did you get that alarm clock from? it's really neat-o!

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  5. i'm trying to fix the legs on an old swivel rocker. I bought these legs, but I need them to have the 'self-leveling' feature. Did you put that on yours?

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