Hairpins & Coffee

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When I moved into my first apartment, I was dying for a rustic wood coffee table with a wrought-iron base. No matter where I looked, it appeared that I wasn’t going to find one for less than $300. As a newly-graduated working gal, that was out of my budget.

My dad, being the handyman that he is, helped me build my own tabletop. I spent numerous nights hammering and making the boards look old and beat up. Once the tabletop was complete we put it on top of an old trunk and it’s been in my apartment ever since.

I’ve loved the rustic look of the trunk, but it’s old. One of the handles ripped off in my move to Chicago, the bottom of the trunk snags and rips my beautiful jute rug and in the process of Oliver’s teething stage, he chewed the remaining handle quite a bit. Bottom line? The table needs a little facelift.

I love the combination of rustic and industrial pieces mixed with traditional pieces, so I decided to go with industrial-looking hairpin legs. They’re also a relatively inexpensive way to update a piece. I went back and forth trying to figure out which style of hairpin leg — square rod, ones with little feet, three bar legs — after all the looking, pondering and mind-changing, I decided on the most basic, standard hairpin leg they have. Haha!

Now it’s just a waiting game until they arrive in the mail! I can’t wait to show you the new look!