I picked up an INGO dining table at a church sale for $5. So, I thought I’d have a shot at turning it into a coffee table for our small living room. We’d decided on an oval shape (elliptical to be precise) as we kept banging our shins on the square corners of our existing one.
IKEA items used:
Other materials and tools:
Elliptical coffee table how-to:
The first step was deciding on an appropriate height and cutting the legs down.
Rather obvious, but worth mentioning that you should work out the height that works best for you. For instance, I had my partner sit on the sofa. Then, placed a cup down to what she thought was the best height and measured from there.
The following step was to cut the ellipse out of the table top. Pretty sure we drew ellipses in Grade six but couldn’t remember how to do it. A quick Google soon put me right.
It’s a bit tricky getting the eccentricity just right for the shape we wanted. Consequently, after 3 or 4 attempts (too long. too wide. too narrow) we found the perfect ellipse for our purpose.
Of course, you can have any shape you want. At any rate, we found the ellipse to be perfect for in front of the sofa. It allows you room to slide into your seat and, above all, no more banging shins on sharp corners!
Once the top had been cut to size, the frame had to be cut down to accommodate it.
There are four pieces to cut. You can create the channel for the leg brace by cutting it with a table saw or even a handsaw. It’s doesn’t have to be pretty as it’s hidden and is only there to take the end of the leg brace.
We decided to add a simple shelf under the table. We used a pine board from the local DIY shop and four basic shelf pins.
Stain, varnish and paint as required, and presto! A bespoke elliptical coffee table!!
~ by Jim Elder
Related: Click here for more coffee table hacks.
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