How To​​: DIY Epoxy Table With LED Lights

8 Materials
$50
1 Day
Easy

This project is sponsored by Upstart Epoxy, however, the thoughts & opinions are always my own. I only share products & companies I absolutely love with yall!

Build A Custom Table Top Using Epoxy Resin & LED Lights

Y’all this has got to be one of the coolest DIY’s I have ever done!

And it all started because of a broken patio tabletop.


This gorgeous patio set was purchased a little while back & the glass on the coffee table portion completely shattered, along with my heart.

Lucky for me my DIY partner in crime decided this was a great opportunity to kick this outdoor furniture up a notch with a DIY table top using wood, epoxy, & wait for it…..LED lights!

Supplies:


  • Upstart Epoxy Resin Kit
  • 2×6 Wood Boards
  • 1 ¾ Pocket Screws
  • Wood Glue
  • 1/2 Plastic Tubing
  • Led Strip Lights
  • Scrap Plywood
  • Construction Grade Hot Glue/Caulk


Procedure:

Table Top Base-

  1. The first thing I did was cut a scrap piece of plywood the size of our coffee table. This will serve as the base for our custom tabletop. I spray painted the entire thing white just in case you could see it through the resin.
  1. Next I cut down scrap 2×6 boards to the length of the plywood plus 4” so that there would be some overhang. I also cut two smaller pieces to be the “ends” where the epoxy will go.
  1. I drilled pocket holes in each board to attach the table top together.
  1. Once all the pocket holes were drilled I got ready to attach the slats together. Each slat got a good coat of wood glue also. This may seem like overkill with the pocket screws too but i’m not taking any chances y’all!
  1. Next I clamped the slats together & used 1-3/4 “ pocket screws to attach them.
  1. Now it’s time to attach my new coffee tabletop to the plywood. I simply flipped the entire tabletop upside down & drilled 2” screws into the bottom of the plywood attaching it to the wooden top.

The reason I chose to use plywood instead of simply running 2 2×4’s across the base is because I need the plywood sheet to act as a mold for the epoxy center.

  1. Here is what we are working with so far! Is it starting to make sense yet?

Adding LED Lights


  1. Now that the top is attached to the plywood, drill two holes in the section where the epoxy will go. This is where you insert my plastic tube & LED lights.
  1. The plastic tubes’ job it’s to protect the LED lights from the epoxy & make it easy if we ever need to swap out LED strands. I am not going to lie to you it took a little bit of creativity to get the LED strips into the tube. We had to tape one end of the strand to weed whipper string & carefully pull them all the way through the tube. This took a couple of tries & once we got the LED strip to come out the other end you would have thought Alabama won the national championship again we were so excited!
  1. After a short victory dance break, we inserted the tube into our predrilled holes. To secure the gaps & tube I used construction grade hot glue. I applied it just like I would caulk, around the entire “molds” edges, up the four corners, & used it to tack down the tube.
  1. While the glue was curing, we stained the entire project with Minwax Hickory gel stain. It’s my favorite stain y’all, I used it on my DIY serving tray!
  1. Once the hot glue was cured, we got to the fun part… epoxy time! How much epoxy you will need will depend on your project. Upstart Epoxy has an easy-to-use coverage calculator right on their site! The kit included Part A, Part B, stirrers, plastic measuring cups, gloves, & we also got metallic powders to give it a little extra va va voom!
  1. If you are not using an entire bottle of both part A & B you will need to measure out an equal amount of both parts. Once you have them measured combine them together into a large plastic bowl or container.
  1. Once both parts are combined into your container it’s time to mix your little heart out. Use a stirrer to gently but completely combine both parts together. Be careful to scrape the edges of the bucket & take your time mixing. The better the parts are mixed together the clearer & less bubbly the end result will be!


After I had the parts completely combined & added in the Upstart white metallic powder & continued mixing away.

  1. When the two parts & powder were well mixed I poured them into the mold portion of the table top. This Epoxy is self leveling so it does the hard part for you!
  1. After I filled the mold with enough epoxy to be even with the wood I double-checked the levelness of the tabletop. Then I used a heat gun to get rid of any bubbles.

This is the hardest part of the whole project y’all, waiting for it to cure! The Upstart formula actually cured very quickly considering how thick the pour was. We were able to plug in the LEDs & test out the table the next day.

Drumroll please…. It turned out even better than we imagined!

The LED’s shine right through the epoxy & really accentuates the metallic powder.

It looks absolutely amazing & it is definitely the coolest outdoor coffee table I have ever seen!

Plus Upstarts Epoxy was so simple to use & very beginner-friendly! This is amazing because sometimes epoxy projects can be kinda intimidating.

Now I am searching the house for other things I can use epoxy on! Let me know what yall think of our new DIY epoxy table with LED lights!

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Lia with Southern Yankee DIY
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3 of 8 questions
  • Meg Infiorati Meg Infiorati on Nov 12, 2022

    Hi, the video will not play on either the phone or the pc. Could you please post a night photo? TIA

  • ToTo ToTo on Jan 02, 2023

    Why didn't you just use those tube lights instead of fighting putting your lights into the tube?

  • Loulou Loulou on Feb 05, 2023

    I’m guessing the LED lights are not battery operated. What did you do to run electricity from the strip to an outlet?

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