Author: sharon

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Irregular Live Edge Table with 3 Rod Hairpin Table Legs

Todd from APB Works in Nebraska knows how to make a great table. This beautiful walnut table shows how fun and functional irregularly shaped tables can be.

This table is also a great example of how varied the look of hairpin legs can be. Todd used the 3 Rod hairpin legs on this table. The angle they are viewed from offers many different views of the same legs; not unlike the table itself. Irregular shapes create interesting variety from different vantage points – certainly something Todd harnesses well in his work.

This table has a great balance of opposites. The table surface incorporates rough and smooth wood. It has light and dark colors. The inlay and metal are non-wood substances yet the table itself would be incomplete without the wood. The outer edge of the table has flat and natural edges. Making a table from scratch offers so many options to the creator.

Are you a person that prefers regular or irregular shapes in your furniture? Hairpin legs offer the perfect support for whatever type of table you’re looking to create. The 3 Rod hairpin legs Todd has used here are known for their additional stability. As they come in a variety of heights this table could have been a shorter table if that’s what suited your project. We like the height Todd chose; he went with a custom set of 38” hairpin legs. This unique and beautiful table will be enjoyed for years to come. Nicely done, Todd.

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New Tube Steel Modern Furniture Legs

It’s always fun to offer a new product, and our family of modern furniture legs has a new member! These tube steel legs are just what they sound like – square tube steel legs. They are simple in design, offering you another great DIY furniture option. These legs are made from hot rolled tubing that is 2-inches square. As with all of our metal legs, it has a mounting plate with holes for your attachment hardware. The tube steel mounting plate is 5-inches square by ¼-inch thick. The holes for your hardware are elongated ¼-inch by ½-inch.

Some customers have picked out the style of metal furniture legs they like and that’s their go-to when building or upgrading furniture. Other customers prefer to keep it interesting and choose a new style for different pieces of furniture. Do you see yourself as one type or the other? This new addition to the metal leg line-up might just fit into your building habits. Here is a new style to try out. It is another fun option for those of you who like to change things up. And for those of you who know what you like and like what you know – maybe this will be your new metal leg soul-mate. Try out this new simple and super functional furniture leg and let us know what you think about it!

We sell these legs individually, so you can get just the number your project calls for. As with our hairpin legs they come in a variety of heights. Even sizes are available from 4-inches to 30-inches to ensure your project is as tall or short as you need it. Perhaps your project would be best completed with legs of different heights. A desk with drawers on only one side, for example, would do well with short legs under the drawers and tall legs supporting the desktop. The options are endless! Keep us posted with your project pics!

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Hairpin Leg Floor Protectors

We get asked a lot about floor protection for hairpin legs, and we’ve seen many DIY solutions to having steel table legs inside the house. Generally, our answer has been: if your furniture stays put and you control humidity, you shouldn’t have any issues.

That said, if you are using hairpin leg furniture on softer floors, or if you move your furniture a lot, you may want to consider floor protection.

After many requests, we now have a great hairpin leg floor protection option for you! The new protectors come in a set of four and conveniently clip onto the bottom of the hairpin leg itself. These floor protectors are made right here in Colorado and they fit right on the bottom of our ½”- and ¾” diameter hairpin legs. If floor protection is something you want to plan for, keep this in mind when you are choosing legs.

If there are other hairpin leg accessories you’ve been thinking of or looking for, get in touch, we’re always looking for ways to help out with more DIY furniture projects.

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Hairpin Table Legs and Cooler Weather

Hairpin legs make durable attractive patio furniture. Using hairpin legs outside is a great way to ensure you get long-lasting furniture that will hold up to use through the outdoor living seasons. How should your homemade furniture be treated as cooler weather comes in?

One of the great thing about our hairpin legs is their basic durability. All our hairpin legs are thick enough to withstand whatever you or the elements throw at them. In fact, you might need to be more concerned about your table and chair-tops than the hairpin legs themselves. If you’ve got sheltered storage for your outdoor furniture, that is a great winter storage option. Some folks put it all away in a garage or other protected area. A porch or other covered area will work fine, too.

If you’re planning on leaving your furniture outdoors and unprotected all winter, that may be fine as well. Our hairpin legs will last a long time even in unprotected areas, but they may develop a patina of rust depending on the weather. To avoid rust you can consider adding a layer of protection. The hairpin legs themselves can be clear-coated, waxed or oiled to protect them from moisture.

Depending on the type of table- and chair-tops that comprises your furniture, you may want to simply give the whole thing a quick sanding and add one more layer of protection before the harsher weather sets in. And don’t worry, your hairpin leg furniture will be sitting there waiting for you when the warmer seasons come again!

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Hairpin Table Legs: Blending in or Standing Out

Hairpin legs often take a backstage seat to the wonderful tabletops they support. They’re happy to give up the limelight and silently, sturdily do their job. The natural dark color of our hairpin legs helps them do this. It is perfectly acceptable for your hairpin legs to blend into the background of your homemade table.

However, if you’re looking to draw more attention to the legs themselves, brighter colors are a great way to go about it. Adding color to hairpin legs can bring them forward giving them some of the spotlight. It can also connect the legs to colors in the tabletop itself or those in the environment around the hairpin legs. We’ve seen some fun hairpin leg colors in our time. A bright turquoise leg matches perfectly with painted pieces in the tabletop or even with turquoise inlay.

Although our hairpin legs need not be painted or sealed at all, if you choose to do so, don’t feel it is all or nothing. Painting the bottom portion of the legs gives them a “dipped” look. And if you’re choosing the make a piece of hairpin leg furniture that is upholstered, like a stool or ottoman, painting the legs is a fun way to highlight or match colors. Hairpin legs are versatile in so many ways. Our hairpin legs come in a choice of height, width, and style so you get just what you want. Then you get to add hue and gloss dimensions to further customize. Go wild with your hairpin leg paint job and send us a picture so we can enjoy them too!

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Hairpin Table Legs: Is It About the Wood or the Legs?

Hairpin table legs are a sturdy long-lasting way to support a piece of furniture. Frequently they are paired with beautiful wood to create a table. Using a unique piece of wood is often what customers choose to do and it’s clear why.

One of a kind slabs of wood are amazing. They can be live edge wood highlighting the natural beauty of the tree’s original shape. Sometimes a rare type of wood is used emphasizing the distinctiveness of the type of wood. Another method is to put together pieces of wood to make a dimensional tabletop. There are many ways to go about making a table, but what is the focus of the table? Is the point to highlight the hand-made hairpin legs and show off their sleek metal lines? Or does it make sense to keep the wood the center of attention?

There really is no correct answer to that – the table you make should be whatever you want. But often, the wood takes center stage. Choosing a piece of wood to make your own table is important and it is great to highlight that choice. Hairpin table legs allow you to give the spotlight to the tabletop. They solidly performing their function while letting the tabletop get the attention. We offer many hairpin leg styles so you can figure out which one best supports the table you are making. We want to be sure your masterpiece gets the attention it deserves!

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Mahogany Sideboard with Short Hairpin Legs

We often get asked which of our hairpin legs are best able to support heavy loads. Customers are often referring to standard table-height metal legs so the recommendation may be for the 3-rod hairpin leg or the Just the Tip hairpin legs. Those two styles of hairpin legs offer the greatest stability. But it may be that our short hairpin legs do the most weight-lifting. These short hairpin legs are a great option for heavier furniture that’s not held too far off the ground. Desks with large drawer compartments, for example, often employ our hairpin legs in shorter heights.

 

mahogany sideboard with short hairpin legsThis mid-century mahogany sideboard is a great example of short hairpin legs in action. The folks at Chairish have this great sideboard credenza for sale. It is a sleek piece of furniture that would look great in any home. Sideboards are great pieces of furniture that can be used in a variety of ways. They typically offer a lot of storage – often for items that are can be hard to know where to store. Table linens, decorative accent pieces, board games, and crafting items are all great ways to utilizing your sideboard.

They can also be used as an entertainment center or centerpiece of any room. Giving an old sideboard a facelift with a new set of hairpin legs make it looks sleek and elegant. And you’ll know it will be solidly held up with sturdy metal hairpin legs. While our taller hairpin legs may be what immediately comes to mind when putting together a heavy-use piece of furniture, it may in fact be true that our short hairpin legs are what end up holding the most weight.

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Vaishnavi’s Chevron Cabinet with Angle Iron Table Legs

Furniture can play many different roles in our lives. Making your own furniture ensures you can choose exactly how it functions in your home. Sometimes furniture is meant to blend into the room and integrate quietly with its surroundings. Other times furniture is meant to play a leading role in a room, sometimes being a showpiece. It appears that Vaishnavi’s cabinet will be the latter.

This amazing cabinet certainly catches the eye. It is hard to imagine this being anything other than a centerpiece in a room. Vaishnavi says,

“This was a boring bar cabinet that I painted a gold chevron pattern on and then put your legs on it. The mix of metallic elements makes it very unexpected and interesting!”

Thank you for sharing, Vaishnavi. Your cabinet is amazing! There are so many aspects of DIY metal leg furniture that are worthwhile. Taking an ordinary piece of furniture and watching it transform under your own hand can be one of the most rewarding aspects of a DIY furniture project. You can choose to use our hairpin legs or our angle iron table legs, as Vaishnavi did. They come in a variety of heights to ensure you get exactly what you need for your finished product. You can take an existing piece of furniture, as was done here, or build the whole thing from scratch. There are endless options. Thanks for sharing, Vaishnavi!

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Vintage Teak Table with Modern Metal Table Legs

When you talk about fine wood and furniture making, teak will inevitably come up. It is a prized wood used to make a variety of things. How come? Teak is naturally tough. First of all, it is physically durable. It can be relatively easily worked, but its durability is known to dull woodworking tools. Secondly, it is naturally weather resistant. Fine outdoor furniture is often made of teak and will last a long time. It doesn’t need chemicals or a special finish to withstand the elements. It will gray over time when left untreated outdoors giving it a beautiful silvery look. On top of all of that, teak naturally resists insects that can damage wood.

Not sold yet? Teak is also just plain gorgeous! It has a golden color to it when kept indoors or treated to protect it from the elements. Take a look at how stunningly this Mid-Century table has aged. It could be mistaken for brand new!

If you’re thinking of making a new teak table, or repurposing an old one, hairpin legs are a great option! That’s exactly what the folks at Vintage Home Boutique in Toronto did. Their teak hairpin leg table is beautiful. The hairpin legs support the clean lines of this sleek teak tabletop. We know how versatile hairpin legs can be, but we like that the folks at Vintage Home Boutique point out another great aspect of hairpin legs: they can be removed! It may seem obvious, but it’s worth stating. Whenever you need to move or even store a hairpin leg table, the hairpin legs can easily be removed. No more wondering how you’re going to get your table through a front door or up some stairs! Elegance and practicality!

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Two-Tiered Table with Inlay and Angle Iron Table Legs

This two-tiered table is a gem! Let us count the ways…the dark bark on the live edge slab nicely combines with the accent of the interior of the wood color as well as with the dark metal of the tapered angle iron table legs.

Keeping the live edge on this slab maintains the curved lines which will catch the eye of anyone entering your home. Turquoise inlay is always a treat, and Todd has a gift for adding it as an accent. Here it follows the contours of the wood slab itself even dipping into the branch remnant. And, of course, we love the addition of a second shelf!

nested table with angle iron table legs and inlay

This makes this table truly unique. This simple addition adds substantiality to the table. It also makes it more usable for out of the way storage. This table was expertly crafted by Todd at APB Works in Nebraska. What a gem, thank you for sharing, Todd.

This table is a great demonstration of how innovative metal legs allow the creator to be. Coming up with the design for your metal leg table might just be as fun as making it. Hairpin legs and tapered angle iron legs offer so many options. If you have a custom idea in mind for your hairpin legs or tapered angle iron legs, let us know. We’re always happy to entertain custom ideas – and we love seeing how they turn out!