Two End Tables = One Storage Cabinet

Alicia W
by Alicia W
4 Materials
$30
5 Days
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Do you have a piece or pieces of furniture that you’re not using but you’re in need of something else? Deconstruction is the answer!

I found these two endtables on Facebook Marketplace for $20. The left one has two leaves that fold down and the right one has two drawers. I knew this is what I needed to make a one of a kind storage cabinet.

I began by disconstructing the table with the leaves. Using a screwdriver and a little muscle it came apart easily and I was left with a lot of pieces to work with.

I sanded all of the pieces along with sanding the entire table with the two drawers.

Now for construction:

A-I wanted to make the leaves into doors so I measured them and build a frame using scrap 1”x2” pine

B-I build two “U” shapes for the front and back and attached the them to the top of the leaf table. This would be the top of the cabinet.

C-I place this onto the 2 drawer table to make sure it fit.

A-I used the side pieces of the leaf table to secure the ”U” shapes to the two drawer table

B-using screws from the orginial table

C-With scrap plywood I added sides

D-And pegboard to the back

A-Measuring all around the cabinet

B-I cut trim

C-And attached with an air nailer

A-Using two legs from the leaf table

B-I cut off the bottoms

C-And the middle pieces to make risers for shelves

For the shelves

A-I measured and cut shelves from scrap plywood

B-Cutting out notches so they would fit flush to the sides of the cabinet

C-I spray painted the leg pieces copper and painted the shelves white

D-I placed the legs where I wanted them and made sure the shelves fit properly. I also added a small piece of wood to the side of the cabinet where the shelf would rest.

E-I added trim to two of the sides of each of the shelves

F-Using an airnailer, I attached the legs to the cabinet and the shelves to the legs.

For shelving on the top of the cabinet

A-I used the side pieces of the leaf cabinet, removing the small pieces that held the drawer

B-I used the wings that once held up the leaves

C-I attached the two side pieces to the wings with screws from the orgininal table. Because the wings were curved, I used small bits of wood to make the shelves level.

D-I added to rim to edges of the shelves

E-And trim to the front

F-I painted the entire shelving white

G-and attached it to the top of the cabinet with screws

Hardware

I spray painted the existing knobs and put them back onto the two drawers. I only had one knob left so I purchased two simple pulls

A-I spray painted them the same color as the knobs

B-Measured the front of the doors

C-Drilled holes through the doors

D- The screws that came with the pulls were a little long so I added a washer to the screw and screwed it through the hole

E-And screwed on the pulls

The outside of the cabinet was complete!

Now for the inside.

A-I wanted to dress up the inside a bit so I used wrapping paper I had on hand. I cut it to fit

B-Applied Mod Podge to the wrong side

C-And attached it to the inside side of the cabinet, smoothing it with a credit card

To add hanging space

A-I attached cord holder Command Hooks to either side

B-Slid a piece of dowel through the hooks and cut it to size

C-I used this to hang spools of thread and washi tape

To add items to the peg board

A-I purchased dowel that would fit into the holes of the peg board and using a basket I had on hand

B-I threaded the dowel through the basket on either end and cut the dowel to size

C-I placed the dowels into the holes of the pegboard and hung the basket

I used the baskets to store smaller,lightweight items

A-Here is the finished cabinet! The bottom is the orginial table with two drawers. The only thing I did to that table was sand it, paint it white and paint the knobs on the drawers.

B-The shelving holds pens, twine, my Xrons and a basket of odd and ends

C-The top shelving looks so pretty and is very useful

D-I stapled a piece of elastic to either side at the bottom. This is great to hold roles of paper and vinyl

E-The thin shelf at the top is made from one of the sides and trimmed out to hold paint bottles. More dowel pegs were added to hold another basket and a pair of scissors.


The only thing I had to purchase was hardware for the doors, a dowel and a few pieces of trim. Everything else were items I had on hand or pieces of the original side tables including the screws!

Resources for this project:
Thunderbird Forest Pine Boards 1 " X 2 " X 4 ' Pine
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2 of 14 comments
  • Aryeh Kaufman Aryeh Kaufman on Sep 16, 2018

    Very cool. This reminded me of the children's story book: "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel"


  • Carol Cole Carol Cole on Oct 29, 2018

    absolutely beautiful. Great job. I love it that women are getting into making different things out of things.

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