Broken Coffee Table Turned Bench

Here’s is the before of the coffee table. Do not be fooled. It looks like it’s in decent condition, but every single leg on it was wobbly (and one was actually completely broken off).

The first thing I did was flip the table over, so I could see underneath it. I wanted to make sure I knew the easiest way to disassemble it. Luckily for me it was just a bunch of screws.

Once I had everything unscrewed, I laid out all the pieces I needed to make the bottom half of my bench (the leg and edge portions). I did this step, because I wanted to double check I knew what everything was and where it needed to go.

When I had all my pieces figured out I took the shorter side boards and cut them down to 12 inches each. By doing this the table would now be 12 inches wide, which felt like a more appropriate width for a bench.

Then I used my miter saw to carefully recut a groove into each board so that I could refit the corner brackets I had previously unscrewed.

Before I moved on I double checked that the brackets did indeed fit into the new grooves. I did end up having to recut some of my recut grooves, but that’s why I double checked the fitting! Once I had the cuts right I secured the brackets back in with wood filler and screws. I would recommend help for this part, because it’s hard to juggle all the pieces alone.

With the leg and sides assembled it was time to fill in the dings and dents. After they dried I sanded the whole thing down and wiped it clean.

Next, I chalk painted it white and sealed it.

Now that the base of my bench was done I needed to work on the actual seating portion of it. Since I didn’t want to go out and buy new material for this project I decided to use some old fence slates from my grandmothers house. The wood is in great condition, plus it has sentimental meaning to me and my family. But, you could just as easily find old pallets wood if you are completing a similar project!

I cut the slates to size and used wood glue and a nail gun to secure them to the bench base.

Lastly I gave them a good sanding.

And that’s it! Now I have a brand new, sturdy bench to go under our coatrack! Plus the materials were free and the overall project was simple and straightforward. That definitely calls for 3 cheers to finding free furniture on the roadside!