Category: Customer Photos

A hairpin legs desk will certainly stand out in your home…as well as offer a long-lasting furniture solution. Our thin styled metal hairpin legs leave ample room for legs and chairs without compromising stability or durability. Here is a great piece made by Olivier. It’s a great showcase of what anyone can plan and create at home: a one-of-a-kind desk. Olivier stared with hairpin legs and added an IKEA countertop as the surface for his kid’s desk. Here is what Olivier had to say:

My wife really wanted hairpin legs. So the desk was built around it. The top is made out of a ‘butcher block’ kitchen counter, bought at IKEA and then stained antique oak.

What a great finished piece! The dark stain on the wood nicely complements the metal leg. Choosing a top that is not too deep makes it fit well in the hallway space while still providing plenty of desktop.

If you are interested in making your own desk you can order hairpin legs considered standard table or desk height which is 28 – 30 inches. Or if you use a table or desk whose height feels right that you’d like to mimic, measure the floor to tabletop height and you’ll know how long your hairpin legs need to be. We offer even sizes from 4 to 30 inches so you can order any height you need. You can even order varied height hairpin legs to put on a more traditional drawer-style desk.

Enjoy your new desk Olivier, and thanks for sharing!

For many of us, Fall is a favorite time of year…the perfect time to finish up some around-the-house projects and spend some time in the back yard. This week we want to share the great benches Autumn made for her home. These are both great examples of DIY furniture using metal bench legs. As you can see they are two different sizes accommodating different uses – and accommodating different spaces.

The height of the taller bench makes an otherwise difficult to use space more usable. Covering the heating radiator protects people as well as the radiator and gives the space more functionality. The benches are quite similar and match each other while holding their own character at the same time. We offer two distinct styles of bench legs: tube steel bench legs and flat bar bench legs. Autumn chose tube steel bench legs for these two projects but both types of metal bench legs are great options.

Both types of metal bench legs come in the standard bench size: they are 15-inches tall with a tapered width standing 8-inches wide at the top and 12-inches wide at the bottom. The flat bar bench legs are made 1 ½-inch by ¼-inch unfinished raw steel. The tube steel bench legs are made from 1-inch by 2-inch rectangular steel tube. How did Autumn get two different bench heights if both of our bench legs come in the standard 15” height? You can order custom bench support sizes! Contact us with your project specifications and we’ll work with you to figure out what will work for your project!
Great job Autumn, thanks for sharing!

Matthew sourced the wood for this amazing finished piece from a neighbor that was doing some tree work. By adding our tube steel bench legs, he was able to marry the live edge of the wood with the sturdy clean lines of our bench legs. Here is the project described in Matthew’s own words:

My neighbor had cut down an oak in our back yard and had portions of the trunk rough cut into slabs at a sawmill. This slab was dried for about 2 years prior to working on it. Many hours with hand planes and sander resulted in a nice slab. Dimensions are approximately 78″ long by 12-16″ wide by 2″ thick. Tube steel bench legs are mounted into recesses on the underside which were routed and chiseled about 0.25″ deep so that the undersurface of the mounting plate is flush with the underside of the bench. It is finished with 3 coats of Minwax tung oil finish. It is a woodworking project that I could complete in 2 weekends. It retains the characteristics of the rough raw materials while looking clean and finished.

As Matthew mentions, the tube steel legs were recessed into the wood itself in a routed channel. This is not necessary to do in order to use our bench legs, but it does make a beautiful and more finished product. Nicely done Matthew – thanks for sharing! Your DIY bench looks great and is a great example of how a chore for one person in your community (in this case, his neighbor) can turn into a wonderful home accent for someone else.

We offer a variety of metal hairpin legs as well as metal bench legs to satisfy a multitude of styles and preferences. The furniture you can make with metal legs is limited only to your imagination. you can make a stand alone piece or multiple pieces that either use matching or complimentary metal legs. Imagine a wonderful kitchen set with solid metal legs made to order just for you; you could have bench legs on the kitchen table and hairpin legs on the chairs or stools – or bench seats at the table with matching metal bench legs on the table.

Many pieces of furniture, as well as furniture sets, can accommodate metal legs. A living room set can include a coffee table with matching end tables or accent tables. A bedroom set can include a dresser or chest with short hairpin legs and bedside nightstands with hairpin legs – or a bench for sitting while changing in your bedroom or walk-in closet. Previous customers have used our hairpin legs and bench legs for tables, chairs, benches, trunks or chests, end tables, desks, outdoor furniture pieces, storage pieces, and more. What makes metal hairpin legs great is their versatility – as you can see by past customer’s unending innovations. If it is made of wood, chances are there is a way to add a set of hairpin legs or bench legs to it. Every set of our bench legs or hairpin legs are made to order of 100% recyclable steel right here in the USA. So get your creative juices flowing and send us a picture of your beautiful creation!

Although our classic hairpin legs closely resemble the turn-of-the-century classic and are perhaps our most popular, we offer a variety of other styles of hairpin legs. The Twist hairpin leg is one such variation on the original. If you’ll pardon the pun, these legs are a twist on our original hairpin leg – literally.

Jerrod has taken a set of our Twist hairpin legs and turned them into a beautiful table. This beautiful table uses the light color of the wood and nicely contrasts the darker steel of the metal legs. Our hairpin legs come in a variety of heights…Jerrod chose to use a taller size to build this table. This style of table–both taller and thinner than average– makes a great side table, entryway table, or hallway table as it is convenient for grabbing keys or hats while you enter or leave a room and it is tall enough to offer usable space underneath.

Thinking about the placement and use of your table will help you determine the type of table top you will want as well as the type of finish you want to give your tabletop. Jerrod’s table has a smooth finish on the woodwork – even the edges are smoothed. The smooth edges are a good fit for an entryway table—they will ensure hands and clothing won’t get snagged on the way–great for tables that will be in well traveled areas of a house. Thank you for sharing Jerrod, we love your table!

There are plenty of ways to get creative with our metal hairpin legs. We see customers making their own wood tabletops and adding our hairpin legs to complete the table. But there are many people that use our metal legs to make benches as well. We offer two different styles of bench legs – flat bar bench legs and tube steel bench legs. These are heavy duty legs meant to handle the load of the added weight and motion of continual use. For a lighter use bench folks also successfully use our hairpin legs.

We’ve seen a great variety of beautiful wooden benches made with our bench legs, and our customers really enjoy the simple beauty of wood crafted into a rustic bench. But some of our customers have created beautifully upholstered benches as well.

Upholstering your own bench can be as easy as picking out fabric that works for the furniture’s intended use (a heavier-duty fabric will add more durability for heavier use furniture). Simply adding fabric on top of wood will add color and texture to the wood while still maintaining the wood’s sturdy characteristics. Adding padding between the fabric and wood will make a more cushioned surface. Fabric supply stores will offer both the fabric as well as the cushioning. There are also pre-made cushion tops that can be attached to the bench – and removed later if needed. There are many bench options – they look beautiful with natural wood, a fabric accent, or a padded seat. Let us know what you come up with…we love sharing your designs as inspiration!

Looking for ideas or just wondering what is built with our metal hairpin legs and metal bench legs? Here are some ideas!

Sometimes it is fun and helpful to know what others have built with our metal legs. Some of the more commonly used applications are for tables. A table can be one of the quickest and easiest hairpin leg projects one can undertake. It can also be a great place to start if it is one of your first do-it-yourself furniture projects. Tables can be made of repurposed lumber or they can be made using an existing tabletop that gets a facelift with a new set of metal hairpin legs.

Our customers make a lot of benches as well with our bench legs – and sometimes using our hairpin legs. Benches have many applications that make them useful both indoors and outdoors. A bench can–of course–be used alone as a sitting space or it can be combined with a table for seating that takes up less space per person than chairs may. Benches are also a nice outdoor furniture piece to be used on the patio. And yes, our metal legs can be used outdoors as well as indoors.

The DIY furniture possibilities don’t stop with tables and benches. Many customers have made beautiful desks from either hairpin legs or bench legs. The simple, solid look of our metal legs offers a solid work space without taking up a lot of room underneath so there’s plenty of legroom. Less common but very practical pieces from our customers include storage bins, side tables and more. Wooden trunks and other types of storage units go well with short hairpin legs. The sky is the limit on what can be made with our hairpin legs and bench legs, so take a look at what other customers have done or look around you at what furniture you think would look good with a new set of hairpin legs. And don’t forget to send us a picture of your creation!

We got an great question recently: “Some tables have metal frames, do you make these?” Good question! Many customers use our hairpin legs and simply attach them to the underside of a wooden table top and voila! You’ve got a beautiful new table you made yourself. But there are circumstances where a metal frame is a good idea to support the tabletop. Or sometimes a customer would like a metal frame as part of the tabletop itself. We are happy to talk to customers about a custom metal table frames. Our many varieties of metal hairpin legs do a great job of supporting all kinds of tabletops. But there are situations where the tabletop itself requires more structure. Many tabletops are ready to attach your hairpin legs, but if your project needs that added stability, let us know how we can help. We are always happy to discuss custom orders and if it’s made of metal, chances are we can make it for you!

Take a look at Susi’s Bulletproof Table – it is made of two oak table leaves. Alone the leaves may not attach to each other in a way that would have lasting structure. So before adding the square bar hairpin legs, Susi had us build a custom metal table frame with holes for the screws included.

Garrett let us know exactly what would work for this ingenious tabletop and the finished product is this unique log end tabletop with the metal frame as part of the tabletop itself – and it’s covered with glass to finish it off. If you’re thinking of making a table with a tabletop that may not be as sturdy as you’d like then a metal table frame might be a good option for added stability. A metal substructure ensures that the tabletop isn’t the weak point in the table – and if hairpin legs are going to be the finishing touch, they won’t have to support both lateral and vertical weight.

We love seeing what customers have built with our metal hairpin legs. Here is a beautiful bench Michael in LA made with our rebar hairpin legs. What a great combination! Michael did a great job with this bench. It is made with a beautiful solid piece of wood and the rebar hairpin legs are attached securely underneath. The rebar hairpin legs really compliment the rugged aspect of the wood. The wood itself is smooth and solid while showing the uniqueness of its individual character. The knots in the wood and slightly textured color are really complimented by the textured aspect of the rebar legs. There’s a reason rebar is used as a structural stabilizing agent in construction! This is going to be one solid bench!

Why use the rebar hairpin legs instead of the bench legs? Our metal hairpin legs are very durable and able to hold up a lot of use. So the look of this bench is unique to its parts and will do the job of a sturdy long-lasting bench! We’re sure this bench will be a great place to soak up some rays, take in a book, or enjoy a cool drink on a beautiful day. Thanks again for sharing, Michael!

Customers have asked us if using different styles of metal legs throughout the house works. Yes it does! We offer different styles of metal legs to satisfy different needs. And sometimes those needs – or preferences – may fall within the same area in your house, office, et cetera. All of our legs styles – from hairpin legs, to bench legs, to angle iron legs, all can be used in harmony. A set of angle iron legs can compliment a tapered shape in a table; bench legs can highlight the sturdiness of a seating piece, and the classic hairpin legs shows off the functionality as well as the fashion of a table.

Some customers like to use the same kind of legs for all of their projects and some customers like to add variety to the type of metal legs they use. Using the same kind of metal legs throughout the home affords synergy whereas using different styles can add variety. It really depends on your preference. We’ve had customers let us know they’re happy with both! Pairing different styles of legs together is a matter of preference. You can certainly see that there are a lot of options for mixing and matching throughout different furniture pieces, but there are no specific rules in how to go about doing so. Perhaps you would like a coffee table made with our classic hairpin leg and you’d like matching end tables. We offer hairpin legs in 4” – 30” so that is easily obtained. Or perhaps you’d like a bedroom set like a dresser or chest with shorter hairpin legs but nightstand tables with a slightly different style of hairpin legs such as the square bar hairpin legs or the rebar hairpin legs – or perhaps something that sets them apart even more such as the tapered angle iron legs.

You could even put a bench in your bedroom for changing using either of the two types of bench legs we offer, flat bar bench legs and tube steel bench legs. Why does this work? The metal of the legs holds its own yet it provides the perfect accent for the wooden tabletop. The metal legs and the wooden tabletops create unity and can match if they are all the same or complement each other when they are different shapes made with the same materials. Of course the other elements in the room will also add to the choice you make as to what types of hairpin legs you’d like to use together. No matter what it will be fun. So take some pictures and let us know what you’ve come up with!