Man Cave – DIY Lattice Coffee Table

You may remember one of the last things projects I wanted to complete in the “Man Cave” was updating a simple coffee table I found at the thrift store for 8€ ($11.) Well now that the weather has warmed up a bit I have finally gotten the project complete. When I bought the coffee table it looked like this.

Not a bad design but pretty basic. It has a nice channel detail just under the top that kind of gives it an Asian feel so it got me thinking how I could spice it up a bit. My first thought was paint it red but I wanted to do more do more. I did some research on Asian  furniture and found some great lattice pieces. I chose a style that I though I might be easy to recreate as part of my table. This St. Tropez table was my inspiration. I figure this lattice  would be easy enough to recreate but also sturdy enough to stand up to wear and tear. This guy costs $1150, I figured I could come in way under that budget!

I started by tracing my table onto a piece of craft paper using a scrap of my lattice wood (I used a dimension that matched the width of the coffee table legs) I drew out my template. Using the template and the table I cut each piece individually with a compound miter saw and laid them onto the template to guarantee a perfect fit. I then glued each set of T’s together and secured them with a nail gun. This is what you will have once these steps are complete.

Once your T’s are dry you will use the same process as above to secure the T’s together.

The next step is the most important for a quality finished product.

Using wood filler, fill all the nail wholes and any gaps between the pieces you have nailed together. Once the filler has dried give the entire piece as good sanding.

At this point you are ready to add the lattice to the table.
First secured the bottom rail using wood glue and a few nails thru the side of the legs. After that is secure insert the lattice piece in the same way putting a few nails thru the bottom rail and thru the sides of the leg into the lattice.

Now it’s time for a second round of filling and sanding. This go round give the entire table a once over with the sand paper and your ready for paint. I like to use spray paint on small pieces with lots of detail like this one.

Start with the table upside down using a coat of prime first. I used a darker primer since I my final coat would be red. Once the underside is well coated flip the table over and prime the top. It is important to paint from all sides, upside down and right side up to get all the nooks and crannies of the lattice.

Once completely dry you will use the same technique to apply the finish coats. ou can see why it is important to paint from all sides once you flip the table over.

Painting the top will take a little patience. For best results use several lite coats and alternate directions for better coverage. If you feel like you need to sand between coats us a brown paper bag. This will give you the finest abrasion and smooth the paint without removing too much.

The final result is a pretty awesome table for less than $40!!

How do you like it?

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