Vintage Door Coffee Table diy

Hello, My Repurposed Life friends, it’s Joan from Scavenger Chic, with a fairly easy diy to use up any vintage door you’ve found or just have laying around. A while back, my brother, Craig, showed up on my doorstep with a variety of architectural salvage stuff. He had been cleaning out his storage garage, and was ready to part with many of the treasures that he had collected over the years.  All I had to do was reassure him that I would put his treasures to good use and babysit my niece for a couple of hours. In the pile there was a boatload of spindles, some really cool interior shutters, a little bit of bead board and 2 fantastic solid wood doors.  One of the doors…the one above… had been chopped in half. Apparently, my brother had the best of intentions to use the door as a baby gate, but lucky for me he changed his mind. I immediately envisioned a coffee table for the short half of the door. The door measured 30 inches across, which was kind of wide for a coffee table.  First order of business was to chop 2 inches off of each side of the door so that the width of the coffee table was now a more manageable 26 inches across. The door now measured 32 inches in length.  I wouldn’t have minded the length so much, but the space above and below the door insets were not equal. As luck would have it, they were not equal by about 2 inches, the same width that I cut off the sides. Using a kreg jig and wood glue, attached one of the side cutoffs to the end so that the door would be symmetrical. My kids gave me the kreg jig for my birthday, but I have to thank Gail for her encouragement in using it..her encouragement, and a nice Youtube tutorial. Because of all the chopping and sawing, the edges of the door were not in the best of shape.  A quick trip to the hardware store for some molding and all the dings were nicely covered. Corners of the molding were mitered then glued and nailed into place. Out of a 1 x 6, cut a frame the exact measurement of my door with the molding attached. I mitered  the corners but they can also be butted together. The box was also nailed and glued together. On the bottom of the box 2 pieces of scrap wood were cut the exact width of the interior.  Any size scrap wood will do…these are just particle boards that used to be shelving. Nail into place with finishing nails from the outside of the box. Pallet wood was cut to fit on the ledge I just made.  Before nailing into place, I sanded the pieces to get a fairly smooth surface. Once the pallet wood was sanded, it was  nailed to the ledge. The interior of my coffee table was given 2 coats of  dark walnut varathane, the kind with the stain and polyurethane combined. On the outside of the coffee table, nail holes were filled with wood putty then sanded smooth. The legs were the most expensive part of the entire project.  These legs are the 9 inch solid pine traditional legs from Home Depot for $4.25.  Another $2.78 for the top plate and the legs just screw in. I painted the legs before attaching, it was easier to get into all the nooks and crannies. The interior of the table now has 2 coats of the varathane and the box has been given a coat of black chalk paint. The black chalk paint was followed by a coat of tinted wax. Table was finished with a couple of hinges. If you have kids, or plan on using the coffee table to store kids toys you may want to invest in safety hinges. A few pieces of hardware from an old trunk gives the coffee table a bit of rusty bling.  The trunk hardware was an Ebay find a couple of months ago. Finished up the coffee table with  this chippy handle from my box of odds and ends. Tons of storage inside for all my flea market and HGTV magazines. So, now I have a functional door coffee table!  

For a couple more repurposed coffee table ideas make sure you check out my coffee table made from a chicken coop…

…Or this coffee table made mostly from pallet wood.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here next month or come and visit me over at Scavenger Chic any time.

see more of Joan’s projects here