Upcycled Trunk Lid Coffee Table

I may have been able to cobble together enough pictures to create a woefully inadequate post about the the creation of this coffee table. 

A trunk lid is kinda flimsy on its own, so I lined it with plywood to beef it up. It will hold a heavy stack of books without sagging.

 I really wanted to have "X" style legs on this which means I need a small spacer on one side of the leg assembly to account for the thickness of the other leg.

The shelf serves two purposes. It adds a little more storage to the table and stiffens the legs so the table won't be so wobbly. Again I needed to add a spacer piece to one side to account for the thickness of the leg.

Hey how did you actually make the legs? 

Good question blog reader. I drew out a full scale plan for them on a large piece of paper so I can lay everything out and play with it until I get it the way I want it. Then I can transfer the angles to my miter saw and the position of the holes directly onto the wood.

All the hardware was spray painted with a metallic finish, the rest of the lid painted black, and the legs and shelves stained, and sealed with a few coats of poly.

Upcycled Trunk Bookcase and Side Table Set

                                                                                                                                                                      The first thing I did was cut through the hinges to remove the lid. Then I drilled through the rivets to that held all the little bits of hardware that I needed to remove like these brackets and the lid stays.

   This old wine crate fits the width of the trunk so I'll use it as a drawer. I'll cut down its depth so it fits perfectly.

I found this hi-res map graphic online and printed it out on standard size craft paper sheets.

I'll start in the middle and work my way out to make sure I have my graphic centered in the trunk.

Once everything is dry I'll trim away the edges, and then put some graphics on the side panels.

Next I spray painted all the metal parts. I didn't worry about taping off anything as I'll be repainting the body of the trunk any way.

 While that was drying I took the back off the crate and cut it down on the table saw making really sure that there were no nails in the path of the blade. Then I put it back together. Now the depth was just right.

Checking the fit.

I cut down a thin plywood panel to line the inside of the crate so that no one would have to touch the rough sawn wood on the inside.

I flipped the trunk over to work on the drawer runners and rails. The dark wood will be the runners and will attach to the drawer. the lighter wood will be the rails and will attach to the trunk. The other pieces are just spacers.

 I drilled through the sides of the trunk to attach the rails.

Then I glued and nailed the runners to the sides of the crate.

After a lot of sanding I rub candle wax over the rails and runners so that everything will glide smoothly.

I cut down a pine board to make shelves for the inside, sanded, stained and gave them a clear coat of poly. They'll be screwed through the sides of the trunk to hold them in place.

I cut the feet from a piece of 2x4 on my table saw.

I just screw through the bottom of the trunk to attach them.

The outside of the trunk was painted black and given a few coats of clear poly. Everything was reassembled once dry.

Drawer Detail