I’m sure you do it. We all do it. We like to save trash! We have patio sets, tables, planters and other items that we just don’t want/like anymore. But we just can’t make ourselves trash them.
When I moved into this house there was a lot of stuff left in the backyard that was in pretty good shape. But either the items had the wrong color or were rusted or beat up.
from backyard trash to treasure
One example was two patio tables. These were cheapie glass tables that were rusted and were painted white.
Most people would consider that trash. I saw an opportunity.
We were lucky the previous owners left all their real iron patio furniture (the type we could never afford-See the chairs?).
Of course, they took the nice tables including a hammered copper table that alone was worth over $2000 bucks!
Well, I would have taken them too.
So when you find stuff that has good bones but the color isn’t right, what does a girl do? Spray paint!
Good old flat black paint and trash was turned into gold, er, new black tables. Good as new and matched everything (sorry, no before pics but you get the idea)!
On to the Pipe Table
Well, like I said, that was an example. What I REALLY want to show you is how I got something from the backyard and turned it into a show piece in my home bar. There are many projects surrounding that bar but this was one of the most fun to do.
The previous owners also left three heavy umbrella stands. Two of them had these nice decorative “sworlies” on the base and I always thought it was a shame that they were sitting there unused.
Our patio is covered and we don’t really have a need for umbrellas. Except for the goose pond: they sure need shade when it’s 200 degrees outside in Arizona.
Acquiring Ideas
One day I was looking online for ideas for bar height tables for my home bar. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and I noticed that most bar height tables with the style I needed were a little bit pricey.
Also, the room was not that big so I would need custom pieces that would not only fit the space but also the needs of the house (i.e. husband’s game day needs). More money.
So when I found pins about pipe tables I thought: Jackpot!
How cool are they? Easy to assemble, industrial chic/rustic. I had to have one…er, or two.
Planning for the space
I wanted to make a smaller table for one of the corners of the home bar room. That table would be a small square that could fit up to 4 people when pulled out of the wall.
I wanted it to match another pipe table I made for the same room. But if I made it small and square, the legs would have looked strange if they matched the ones on my first pipe table project.
I just couldn’t figure out how to make the base stable. You can see where this is going.
I was just out of ideas. Until I went to check on the geese one afternoon and there it was: My table base!
A gorgeous iron base! Heavy and decorative with all the looks I needed to make it super duper cool!! Don’t worry, the geese still have shade and a base just like this one just for them. Here it is:
Materials for the Pipe Table
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- Umbrella Base (be sure to use a heavy base or the table will topple over with the weight of the top)
- Dark Brown Rustoleum Spray Paint (the closest I could find to a dark rust color)
- 2×6 board (you will need 3 cuts of 2ft x 6in)
- Scrap wood for bracing the table top
- One 2 1/2in flange
- Four 2in hex head screws and nuts
- 2in x 4ft metal pipe
- Nailheads (optional)
- 1 1/2in wood screws
- Minwax Wood Finish Stain- Color Provincial 211 and Minwax Wood Finish Stain – Color Red Chestnut 232 (to match the stain on my first pipe table project for the home bar)
- Finishing wax
The Project
After a thorough clean up, I started by spray painting the base, the pipe (after cutting it to my selected height – 40in), the flange and all screws/nuts/bolts
Table Top
I used new wood boards for my table top and I personally distressed them by hammering, stomping, and using other tools to give it a “worn” look.
But you can use left over wood from your backyard. Or even barn wood from a salvage place. The sky is the limit!
Putting the table top together was very easy. I just lined the boards together and screwed two boards to the back of the table (see image left) to brace top together.
Then it was time to connect the flange holding the pipe base to the table top. I decided to use hex head screws to give it an industrial look to it. spray painted them before attaching them so they would match the “future” nailheads I was planning to add to the piece. I know, I know, the screw could have been shorter but it was all I had and I was too lazy to buy more or cut them short. Plus no one would reach that far with their knees anyway!
Be sure to spray paint the screws before attaching them. I love how the color turned out as the screws matched the decorative nailheads perfectly.
Here’s the final product! What do you think?
So cool to be able to use left over stuff to make new things. The whole thing cost me just the pipe and the flange.
I had left over 2×6 boards already. I paid no more $20 bucks for the pipe and the flange. The flange is the most costly piece of the whole thing (if you are not buying a new umbrella stand to do this).
Tip of the day
The secret for a cheaper pipe is to get pipes from the electrical department, not plumbing.
They are of equal quality but electrical pipes are much cheaper for some reason. Some places will even thread them for you for almost nothing or free.
The one I bought was already threaded and I only needed threads on one end for the flange because the other end was just going into the umbrella base.
Even cooler is the fact that you see some of these pipe tables for sale for a FORTUNE! This table, for example, would easily cost about $300-500 bucks.
Not a bad return for $20 bucks, right?
Shop This Post
Below are some examples of pipe tables I found on Amazon if you prefer to buy one instead of making it:
Do you have any variations of backyard finds that you transformed? We would like to see them.
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Cheers!
st checking to see if they had anything I could use for the sign and lo and behold I found these two boards with a split in the middle and one of the splits had a curve to it. Oh, my head!! Angels started singing! OHHHHHHH!
We know that the Spanish visited some areas of Arizona between the 1500 and 1700s with their forts and missions but this was a long, long time ago and we wonder how much of it survived. And what history can we gather since, say the late 1850s, when things became a little more official (the United States bought Arizona from Mexico in 1853)? We also know that Arizona was a territory until 1912. If you think about it, it’s not that long ago. Sorry, I must have lost you by now with the history lesson but this background is important when looking for certain antiques or vintage items. Which brings us to the question above: What kinds of antiques can one find in Arizona?
trying to kill you (rattlesnakes, scorpions, Gila monsters! Yaiks!). It took these pioneers a lot of courage and it took a lot of tools to build this State! And you can count on one thing from Arizona’s vintage shops: spurs, primitive tools, cowboy hats (oldish and new), dried wood boards-the kind you can make signs with! (Heart palpitations and itchy hands just talking about it!) and lots of Native American goodies (moccasins, dream catchers, headdresses (old and new), arrowheads, turquoise and more.
Other goodies I found there were this 1820’s candle holder for $100 bucks!! 
shoes, it’s a long street!). The problem is you’re gonna want your car nearby because it’s impossible to leave those stores without a lot of stuff! You will find places selling just clothes, mid-century furniture (Mids are a big deal in AZ-Frank Lloyd Wright built and inspired a lot of building designs in Arizona). You will also find “Goodwill type stores” where you can buy good quality dressers and other furniture you can refurbish to give it that vintage look. I am sure you will find a lot of inspiration pieces too and lots of materials to create new “old” things.
I use it as a display piece for my babies’ feather wreath (I have a lot of birds who shed feathers every 6 months! I can smell another tutorial right now) and I also use it as a frame for my favorite wedding photo (notice the same pic in the salvaged door above?)
talking here about the last days of your life or anything like that, rather just the last few days of those things that trouble you the most, work for example, or anything else that chronically hangs over your head. Would you go about with frenzied tunnel-vision regarding your current deadline or project? Or would you suddenly more easily be able to see the big picture? 
…i.e., enough that you would perceive your days going forward in a more ‘content’ way, to actually enjoy them? Would the heightened anxiety and blood pressure that you often walk around with ease up a bit? Indeed, how would you feel if this was the last few days of your troubles?
I’m sure there are a fortunate few who have already grasped their better way and love what they do and have no regrets, etc. But I am writing here for those of us that are in the trenches, the working men and women, trying to balance our responsibilities and survival with the spiritual big picture of our existence here. 
I liked the sturdiness of the frame and figured one day I would use it for something. Since the print doesn’t fit the style of my house (eclectic, junk, repurposed, recycled and comfy) I thought I would just use the frame. So when I decided I wanted to start the project for the menu I thought this would be perfect. Because I was too lazy to remove the print from under the glass and decided that I would just paint over everything. 
make your own very easily (you can find lots of recipes on Pinterest using baking soda, plaster of paris or unsanded grout) or just buy the paint at any hardware store. I was lazy (oy) and bought mine. And yes, I didn’t save any money but I used so little that I will have chalkboard paint forever!!! I know I will use it again in some other project so all is not lost. 
Practice the brush strokes for a while before working on the final product. Of course, once you are working on your surface if you make a mistake you can always remove the paint quickly with a wet paper towel or even paint over with the base color. Notice that the purpose of the “J” is to make sure that the design has a natural curve on the round part and a whispy finish. However, you will come back to the top of the “teardrop” and will fill it in so it looks like a long drop and not an actual “J”.
So there you are, and you’re probably fresh off your dream thoughts, that state of mind (some call it the ‘hypnagogic state’), whatever you call it, where the weight of the coming day has not yet hit you. ……Reserve that couple of minutes for yourself; whatever crap may be coming your way that day and even in the next couple of minutes, claim that first minute or so for yourself, and identify at least that microsecond or instant, for one thing because maybe an instant is as long as it lasts for you on that morning, wherein you have a flash of remembrance of yourself and your purpose, and what’s truly important, even if that realization is quickly inundated by the waves of responsibility that are about to wash over you; but realize that even that daily swift fading of your inspiration tells you something remarkable; the very fact that you do feel frustrated that ‘nirvana’ this morning was seemingly just another transient flash, means that you do have that awareness of what is real and you are still striving for it deep down; that it’s absence is at all troubling to you, is actually a good sign.
so a growing challenge for us as a species, and there should be satisfaction in your knowing that you are trying to work that out, and that with practice will probably get better at it. There are other moments in the day or week that will also undoubtably be inspiring, after all hope springs eternal. But also reflect on this, because it really is remarkable: by being here, you are a warrior in a remarkable time in our evolution, …we all are: there is a quickening, and I think we all sense it on some level, there are clues that time-space as we perceive it may be changing, we are all experiencing it, it’s ‘in our face’ so to speak in this dizzily accelerating world, some say we are evolving toward a different perception of time, and ‘time’ has been a concept which for eons has been perceived by the greatest spiritual and scientific minds as involving some level of illusion vis a vis our limited perception. 
nd (‘the instant’) is maybe the smallest measure of our sense of the time-line. Remember that the concept of “In the blink of an eye” conveys to us that the goal was always there or is instantly attainable, all of which seems to shortcut your laborious progression along a time-line toward that goal. So when you capture that instant as you lay there each morning, I believe maybe you have captured much more: a step or steps toward the ‘timelessness’, that, beyond just delivering us from our frenetic selves, may be instrumental in embracing our evolving selves.
