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Combining Shapes & Colors with Hairpin Legs

Thinking of wood as a raw material may bring to mind a standard lumberyard image. Browsing dimension lumber at the hardware store may reinforce this. Buying 2x4s and building a rectangle is a legitimate way to build hairpin leg furniture, but wood comes in many colors. Combining these colors is a great way to make hairpin leg furniture. What wood color comes to mind when you think of oak? How about cherry? Mahogany and redwood are rarer wood types known for their unique colors. The color combinations of your hairpin furniture could be subtle or bold. Two different hues of the same basic color might be a subtle look that appeals to you. Or perhaps bolder color contrasts or the variety light and dark wood bring is what you’re looking for.

Another way to make a table stand out is the design. Showing the end grain in a butcher block style or choosing a design that uses angles will make your DIY table stand out. This slash board coffee table, for example, uses larger pieces of wood turned at an angle and uses contrasting shades of wood. Maybe you’ve got some wood hanging around that would make a great hairpin leg table. Or maybe these examples will give you a mental image of the wood type you’d like as you plan your hairpin leg project. No matter your final project, we know our hairpin legs will do a great job of supporting your colorful wood creations!

 

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Specialty Woodworking and Hairpin Legs

Woodworking can be an easy way to turn rough lumber into an easily made and pleasant tabletop. It can also be a way to practice new woodworking skills or highlight the ones you already have. Why not put some special woodworking techniques to work in a gorgeous hairpin leg tabletop? Dovetailing two pieces of wood ads stability. Joints of all kind create eye-catching design while utilizing traditional woodworking techniques. Exposed bolts showcase the hardware used to create the tabletop white mixing up the standard lines of the wood itself.

Hairpin legs are easily attached to the underside of lumber. The attachment method can also be used to highlight the construction method itself. Perhaps the screws are picked out with their visibility in mind. The screws do not need to be hidden if their presence is something that appeals to you. Hairpin leg tables can be a way to create something functional. They can also be a way to highlight the character you like to express when working with wood. Pick out the hairpin leg style you like best and make a great piece of woodworking come to light with your own custom table!

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Glass Topped DIY Tables with Bench Legs

Glass tables with custom bench legs are a great addition or alternative to wood tabletops. Glass can cover an existing wooden tabletop. It can also serve as its own tabletop offering elegance and added light in a room. It can be an essential part of a custom tabletop where items are displayed under glass.

One benefit to glass is that it is (usually) a perfectly flat surface. It provides a light feel and a polished look. Glass might be the perfect element for your DIY desk or table. It can be as easy as adding a custom cut piece of glass atop your reclaimed door table, or you can build a table around a piece of reclaimed glass. We’ve seen glass-covered Zen gardens, antique tabletops, and cut wood designs. What do you have in mind that glass would perfectly highlight?

As you can see, a shipping crate, an antique piece of furniture, or a simple wooden tabletop can all be accentuated with a piece of glass. Feel free to send us your unique creation using glass and custom bench legs. We’re looking forward to seeing what you came up with!

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How do I Customize my Hairpin Leg Furniture?

Making hairpin leg furniture is, by definition, going to be a custom piece of furniture. But how do you really customize it to your tastes? Is it going to just turn out to be a simple wood tabletop with some awesome made-to-order hairpin legs? Or can it really express who you are?

There are many ways to customize a hairpin leg table just for you. Think about what you like, what’s important in your life, your hobbies, and how you spend your time. There are many ways to make your custom hairpin leg table reflect who you are. Does an American Flag table speak to you? Or perhaps a table shaped like a place you are drawn to? Perhaps there is an item in your life you would like to display or immortalize. Is it conducive to becoming a piece of furniture?

We’ve seen wooden crates, pieces of luggage, and old equipment be turned into hairpin leg furniture. Turning a beloved object into a piece of furniture gives you a functional table or other furniture while celebrating a special item in your life. Some items may be more conducive than others to being turned into a piece of hairpin leg furniture. But there are many ways to go about it.

If you’re looking for a customized metal frame for your table, get in touch. We’ll see how we can accommodate your personalized plans. And of course, we want to see what you’ve come up with! Send us your hairpin leg furniture pics!

 

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Basic or Fancy Hairpin Leg Furniture?

Hairpin leg furniture can be thought of as a spectrum from basic to expert. Your project can lie anywhere on the spectrum. Where it lies should be driven by your preferences, comfort level and how much time you want to dedicate to the project.

If you’re looking for a quick project without a lot of effort, hairpin legs are a great option. They are easy to throw onto a basic tabletop or door creating a finished table. Purchased, salvaged, and upcycled materials might be just what you’re looking for. Perhaps a pallet is where your resources and inclinations lie. Pallets are a great raw material that can be used as is, for a rough and basic table, or taken apart for use as raw material. With basic materials put together, you just might have a table done in under half of an hour. That is one of the great things about hairpin leg furniture – there really is a table any of us can create.

A specialty piece of furniture might take hours and hours to perfect. Hairpin legs may be giving you the opportunity to create your own furniture masterpiece. Rare woods, specialty woodworking, or wood inlay may be a project you’re excited to undertake. The hairpin legs might be the finishing touch for the piece of furniture you’ve been working on for countless hours. Hairpin legs are endlessly accommodating!

In the end, it doesn’t matter how much time or sweat you want to put into your project. At the end, you’ll have your very own table full of character!

 

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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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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.