This summer while shopping a barn sale, I came across an awesome vintage wood tool chest. It was sturdy, nice and long and the finish had weathered to a beautiful patina. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to give it some legs.
Influenced by my amazing friend Patty who works making
tables and furnishings with reclaimed wood, I have been smitten by watching her put
chunky legs on “things” and making furniture. I don’t have the carpentry skills
of Patti…but this is so simple I knew even I could do it.
For this project, I worked with the tool chest and 4 carved
wooden legs to create a tall side table. It is even cooler if you can find old
legs that have their own personality, but since I had not come across any in my
travels, I purchased 4 unfinished new legs from a friend. You can find
similar ones here. I then stained them a dark walnut, painted them with home made white chalk paint and distressed them.
Then, I created a template with a centered hole and used that to mark where each leg would attach in each corner.
Now, I needed to attach a bolt to each leg was drilling a center Ideally, now in retrospect, it is awesome to find legs that already have a bolt inserted in them that attaches them to your table. In my case, the legs did not come with bolt already so I had to find the center in each leg, drill a hole and insert a hanger bolt. This is a bolt that has two ends...one which is inserted into the leg and then another which will screw into the table.
I drilled the hole with a 5/16 drill bit and then inserted the bolt.
Next, I used a 5/16drill bit to drill 4 holes into the bottom of
the chest. I then put wood glue on the top of each leg, and screw each leg into
the chest by turning the legs until tight.
To make sure this would be firmly attached. From the inside, I then used a washer and bolt to keep the legs in tight.
Look at the difference this makes!! So simple and it just brings the wood back to life.
After it was all assembled and polished up right, I fell in love with it!! I originally planned to list this on my Etsy site, but I just couldn't part with it. But, I Think my new obsession is "putting legs on things" so I plan to have some interesting things up for sale soon!