Counter Height Work Table Project

As I shared in my last post, part of my huge school/craft room redo was creating a counter height work table.

I already had a "Liatorp" pedestal table from Ikea. It was about 8 years old, so the top was badly scratched, dinged & messed up - it stressed me out every time I looked at it because I wasn't sure how to fix the top.

A table with storage sounded good, as did keeping the round shape. I was inspired by this photo I found on Pinterest:



I guess what I did is called an Ikea hack by some. I call it a cheap way to get what I want by using what I already had. Here's the before of the room & the table...

And after...

The building of the new table was a challenge for me, my first attempt at building a real piece of furniture. My husband helped me a lot, and we finished in about 2 hours.

I used 4x4 wood for the legs, which rested almost perfectly on the box that is built under the "Liatorp" table top for holding the table leaf. The legs are cut at 34" tall to create the counter height for the new table. We attached the legs to the "Liatorp" leaf box with flat metal screw plates. Chad also routered a rounded edge onto the outside edge of each leg.

I used 2x2 wood for the shelf supports, and a countersink drill bit so the screws would be hidden below the surface once I finished it. I filled the screw holes with Plastic Wood.

I used the side pieces of the "Billy" bookcase I took apart for another project for this room redo. The side pieces were the same white shade as the "Liatorp" table, so this worked out well. I cut them to length and then cut out the corners for them to fit around the legs. I learned to cut laminated MDF boards on the bottom when using a jigsaw, because the side you cut on ends up fairly rough, while the opposite side ends up clean & smoothe. The shelves are screwed to the shelf supports, again with countersunk screws.

I attached squares of white felt to the bottom of the legs with spray adhesive, for ease of moving the table without scratching the floor.

I primed the raw wood with oil-based Kilz to seal the knots, and painted with flat paint color-matched to the table leaf. I lightly distressed it, then finished with a couple coats of Polycrylic.

Here it is before priming/painting, upside down, which is how we actually did most of the work, except for attaching the shelves.

Next was the scary, messed up table top.

I decided decoupage was the answer to my problem. Since I used maps & globes in the room I redid, I used an old road atlas my mom gave to me for the table top. After giving the top a good sanding with a palm sander and some rough grit sandpaper, I got to work.

I used atlas pages of states where we have lived or visited - basically places that have good memories. Mod Podge and a foam brush were my friends. As you can see, I also did the leaf of the table, it was kinda messed up too.

I finished the top with five (yes, five) coats of Polycrylic in semi-gloss, because I really wanted it to be safe from whatever crafting I do on top.

It is not perfect. Look closely, and you'll see I have air bubbles and bumps. As I've said before, crafting forces me to let go of my perfectionism :) And I can really let go of it because I'm thrilled with how it turned out, new functionality plus no more ugly!


Any ideas of what to do with the pedestal I took off the bottom of the original "Liatorp" table? I'm open to suggestions!