Hazel’s Turned Leg Coffee Table

One day as I looked around my new living room I was trying to decide what changes I wanted to make. We had moved into our house about a year before that and I was slowly getting around to making changes in order to turn it into MY house. Those changes had to happen between all the chaos and activity that is typical for a family of six with many hobbies and events coming up each week, so needless to say, things were happening slowly. As I sat there I knew that first I wanted to build a new coffee table. I wanted to build something unique that I hadn’t seen before, and that’s how Hazel’s Turned Leg Coffee Table came to be.

(This post is sponsored by Osborne Wood Products, they kindly sent me the table legs which are made with awesome quality! It also contains affiliate links which means if you buy through those links I get a small commission at no cost to you. Thanks for your support! If you have any questions about this, please see my Disclosures page.)

I thought up a rough plan in my head, and talked to my contact at Osborne Wood Products to see if they would partner up with me on this project. They said yes and sent me some amazing turned coffee table legs. I immediately started to work on it, but then…life just happened. My kids were let out of school for the summer and we became really busy. Then I started having some health issues and just didn’t make any progress. I lost a little enthusiasm for this project for a short time because of all the roadblocks. That is, until I decided to just keep it simple and not try to add it fancy hardware or “a unique shelf” like I had originally thought. I finished it up last week and I truly couldn’t be happier! It looks different from anything I’ve seen elsewhere and I love, love, love it. Here’s the full photo tutorial to build it.

There are also free plans with all my measurements to go along with this tutorial! You can get those HERE!

Building Hazel’s Turned Leg Coffee Table:

Supplies:

• 8 – Osborne Wood Coffee Table Legs – Part #1389
• 4 – 4x 5/4″ x 8 ft Pine Boards
• Glue Edged table top board (found mine at Menards.)
• Router 
• Router Bits – RoundOver 3/8″ and 3/16″ (I have this set and it works great for beginners.)
• Orbital Sander and 220 grit sandpaper
• Wood Glue
• 3″ Screws
• Drill
• Large Clamps 
• Wood Stain – I used Briarsmoke.
• Polyacrylic
• WhitePaint – I used Behr Pure White

Prepping the pieces:

First, I cut the leg pieces to length and used a router to round off the top edges. I did this to eight pieces, four a bit longer than the other four. (Exact measurements are in the FREE PLANS.)

If you didn’t already know, routing is very messy! This isn’t even a good photo of the mess.

Edges of leg bases are all rounded over just on the top corners.

Staining and Assembling Leg Sections:

Next, put together the leg sections. For each side use four of the Osborne Wood Products Part #1389 Coffee Table Legs, and make the top and bottom straight sections completely symmetrical, as shown below. I ended up adding a longer board on top that is symmetrical to the long board on the base, which the photo does not show. Overall you have two horizontal boards on each end of the legs, just make sure if you did rounded edges that they are facing each other.

Once you’re happy with the leg design, take it all apart again and stain! TIP: This can be done after the table is assembled but it is much easier to do when the pieces are separate. I ended up staining the entire thing in Briarsmoke. It’s a gorgeous color. (In the end I painted the legs all white in the end, but that’s simply because it was too dark for my living room, which you will understand when you see the After photos.) I guess decide what your finish will be and at least finish the bench legs. It really is hard to get a paint brush between them after they are assembled. Not impossible, but not fun.

(ignore the tiny dust. oops.)

Once the stain is all dry (I always wait a day) you’re going to assemble the leg sections. Always dry fit first, make sure everything will go together as you want it to before you add glue and screws.  For this table it’s also especially important to space the legs evenly and mark where you want them.  

Glue and clamp the first horizontal board on each end of the legs. I use a generous amount of Titebond 3 and then leave the clamps on overnight.

Pre-drill a countersink hole into each end of each bench leg.

The glue is very strong, but this screw will just add even more support.

Use the same gluing and clamping process for the longer board on each end.  When that’s done, you’ll have to large and somewhat heavy leg sections.

Figure out the dimensions, or how far apart your want your leg sections to be. This will be determined by the size of your space and the size of your tabletop.

Tabletop:

With that determined, cut your table top to size, use the router to make a 1/8″ rounded edge. This is the board I bought for the top.

If you don’t have a table saw, this is how I cut my large boards. I measure where I want the cut, then clamp a straight edge to use as a guide. You measure the distance from your blade to the edge of the circular saw base, then clamp it that distance away from your line so your saw blade will follow the line.

Use a 1/8″ roundover router bit around the bottom of the tabletop, and a 3/8″ bit along the top edges of the table.

Now stain your top!

I just love Brairsmoke wood stain. And look at the shine on that rounded edge! Totally worth it.

Final Assembly of Leg Sections and Tabletop:

Now place your tabletop upside down on a work surface, line up your leg sections, measure where you want them to go and clamp them in place. 

Pre-drill countersink holes, then glue your leg sections down and add screws in between each leg. To countersink them I just use a large drill bit because I don’t have a special countersink bit. Doing this can be risky if you drill too far, but if you’re careful it works. Be sure you are using screws that are just the right size so they don’t punch out the bottom (which is actually the top of the table.)

Alright, your leg sections are attached!

Measure the distance between the legs and cut boards to that length, these will be your support boards.

Drill pocket holes into each end of these support boards. Then attach to each leg sections using pocket hole screws.

Now pre-drill countersunk holes again to attach the support boards to the tabletop. Glue and attach. You will want to use short screws this time!

Now your table is all assembled! Flip it over and love it! Use polycrylic on the top for a nice smooth and shiny finish.

Finished!

Okay, if you’re like me you’ll get it into your living room and decide that it needs to have white legs instead of stained brown legs. So then you’ll paint them and love it even more! But it looks great either way, so do what works for your space!

What do you think? Do you like the design? Did you check out the FREE plans? Please comment!

~~Sheri

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