A Coffee Table's Second (and Third) Life

The coffee table was one of the first things I bought for the house. It was already well-loved, but the price was right. I lightly sanded the top and polished a bit of shine back into the maple. It became a place to play games, eat dinner, hold blankets in place for forts, and jump off onto the giant bean bag. When my son was little, he'd undo the screws and bolts that held it together, and then I'd help him put it back together. I used it as a studio table when working in my sketchbook and created hundreds of collages there.

The table used as a parking lot.

All this living wore it out, and I repurposed it into a plant stand. When I got tired of that, I knew I had to let it go.

Just before I carried it out to the truck, I had an idea. I took the top off, brought it down to the studio, and used it to turn two IKEA carts into a larger art cart.

Last month, I spent many hours cleaning and moving things around in the studio, so this new addition was a continuation of that fun project. You can read about it here: Playdate: Studio Organization.

There's still the corner of doom to tackle. If you have one of those corners (like the one shown here) and have figured out how to organize it, please email me a picture for inspiration or tag me on Instagram.

And if you’ve done any other IKEA studio hacks, add them in the comments so we can all benefit from your ideas.