# Any creative ideas on how to build some legs/bases for my new glass table?



## joeyboy

Just sourced a FREE glass table top off of my local craigslist. This thing is amazing, it's 3/4'' thick, and 4' X 8'. Awesome edge on it too.

The problem is we're stuck deciding what to do for a base/legs. I'm thinking something like concrete columns in each corner, done real smooth, but was wondering if anyone else had any ideas. We're trying to keep it relatively cheap (we're doing a ton of renovations to the house this'll be in, so this isn't a priority project). We were thinking of building columns with glass tiles but those proved a little expensive.


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## yummy mummy

I have seen glass table tops sitting two marble or granite "L" shapes, that when placed together would form a square.

( I don't really know if I am explaining it correctly).

You can make them the height that you want for the table.

Where would you get that?
I would try going to a place that sells marble or granite slabs and see if they have small pieces that they can sell you.

The glass top would hold in place by putting those small rubber discs on the bottom.


Large terracotta pipes? You can change the colour?:laughing:


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## joeyboy

For the pipes, I was thinking of just doing cement blocks, concrete bonding agent for stucco, then stucco'ing (is that what you meant by terra cota?) The glass tiles idea I meant those glass tiles that are 6" X 8" X 4", that you'd use in a shower. Basically just make poles out of those, but they're pretty expensive. My idea for those wasn't to use just the glass tiles/cubes though, it was to make a concrete base that those would be the exterior of. I'm actually still considering making concrete legs, but using the glass tile corner pieces for the just the outside corner of each leg.

I'll def check into the marble stuff, as I'm gonna have to be looking at specialty stone places for something I wanna do to the bedroom floors anyways. I just have a feeling that granite, or glass cubes, will be cost prohibitive. I know I could just make insanely heavy, sturdy legs out of concrete, finish the concrete, and be done with it (at least til another better idea comes in my head)


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## shapeshifter

What about visiting your nearest plant nursery? Choose a large decorative container and purchase 8 of them. Epoxy the bottoms of each pair together to form the 4 legs. Finish the inside of the container that will be exposed, glue some silicone 'bumpers' around the tops and set the table on top. The large containers should support the weight, could be painted or decoupaged and if they were epoxied, should stick together and not shift.


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## sjjacks

You *might* build four 8x8 or 10x10 square boxes 29-34 inches long out of plywood or particle board and buying a piece of black/white or whatever your pleasure, formica. Put the formica on all four sides and the top and it should look nice if you are trying to achieve a contemporary look. Just make sure legs are level and big enough to support the weight in a stable fashion. Just a thought. I'll keep thinking!


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## J187

joeyboy said:


> Just sourced a FREE glass table top off of my local craigslist. This thing is amazing, it's 3/4'' thick, and 4' X 8'. Awesome edge on it too.
> 
> The problem is we're stuck deciding what to do for a base/legs. I'm thinking something like concrete columns in each corner, done real smooth, but was wondering if anyone else had any ideas. We're trying to keep it relatively cheap (we're doing a ton of renovations to the house this'll be in, so this isn't a priority project). We were thinking of building columns with glass tiles but those proved a little expensive.


 
Nice find. 

How tall do you want it?
Where is it going and for what purpose will it be used?
What does the rest of the decor around the house/room look like?


One interesting idea is to get a wooden table, about 3/4 the size, flip it upside down and nail rubber/felt pads to the bottoms of the legs and lay the glass down on it. Sort of the table/inverted table look. IF you find the right table for a base it could look quite good. Either the table will be finished underneath or you could easily finish it or tile or laminate it or something. You could maybe even get the other table free too on CL. 

Also you could build square legs, one on each side out of 2x3s and plywood and then choose from a billion different ceramic tiles in the world and tile the legs.


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## joeyboy

sorry took so long to respond, we just moved into a new house so haven't been at the computer very often.

I LIKE THAT TILE IDEA!!! Damn, I thought I had a final idea in my mind by now but that may change things!

It's gonna be kept pretty low (no matter how secure the legs were, I'd be uncomfortable with it being tall, that thing weighs so much it would be real dangerous if it fell near someone). It'll prolly be kept about 2' tall, somewhere near that. As far as usage, it'll be in my front living room. We've just moved in, so I'm unsure of the usage of the room so far. It's a decent sized room, one wall is a huuuuge mirror covering the entire wall, it's carpeted with a grey-ish indoor/outdoor carpet, and currently has a black leather couhc in it. So, given that there's nothing in there, we don't use that room. I *was* planning on putting my projector setup out there so we'd have a movie setup that would be ceiling mounted and take up a whole wall (the image), so if that's done it will kind of be a half-assed theater room. 

So the room will either be one of those rooms that's never used, but you walk through it every time you come into the house, or it'll also be where we watch movies (though every day I'm leaning more and more towards just installing hte projector in my bedroom :yes: ).

Oh, walls are white. So white walls, black couch, gray carpet, mirrors. 




My design so far was to make a form that I would use to make concrete legs. The legs would be about 2' tall, and about 2' X 2' wide. They wouldn't be perfect squares though, one side wouldn't have a corner, instead of where there would be concrete I was going to use glass tiles (I attached a pic of the tile I'm talking about. Only the ones I'm going to be using aren't the 8"X4" rectangle ones with a flat face, they're the corner pieces that have 3 faces adn are much chunkier.) I was gonna use 2 of those on each column, on the corner of the column facing away from teh table. I figured that I'd make a concrete block frame for the legs, then cement/concrete the concrete blocks and the glass blocks together in a premade form (using same form for all 4 legs to ensure no variances). I was gonna use 2 shades of gray cement and swirl them for a cool color effect. But now that tile idea is sounding cooler, because you can see teh kitchen from that room, so if I found the exact same tiles used out there, it may be a cool look.....


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## Brik

You may also want to check out these guys for legs.
http://www.tablelegs.com/ I get their catalog and they have a lot of options.


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## joeyboy

I checked them out, they seem like they're all just thin wooden legs, unless i'm missing something. This piece of glass is 4'X8', at 3/4'' thickness. It's gotta weigh 300lbs, I didn't see any legs there that looked like they'd be solid on something like this. I'll actually attach a pic (maybe I already did?) of the table I'm dealing with here, one pic shows the whole piece, the other shows the double beveled edge (bullnose bevel I believe).

I want real chunky, short legs. That's the only way I won't feel like the thing is a safety hazard.....


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## joeyboy

Well, I think we've decided on the legs' construction. It'll be 2 legs, not 4.

The legs will consist of (starting from the floor): 16"X16" cement tile, 12" X 12" cement tile, 4 joined glass blocks, 12X12 tile, 16X16 tile.

They will be all mortared together into one piece, each leg weighing about 100lbs, give or take. Once assembled, they will be stucco'd with a pure white stucco (well, mortar technically), with a gritty / bumpy texture. 

Here's the pics of what they look like just stacked up, the blue is the table outline (these were just purchased today, there's no support going on, they're just placed on top of each other)


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## joeyboy

sorry here's those pics


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## joeyboy

decided this morning that it'd prolly be safer to have all teh cement blocks the same orientation. I just did the first step, mortaring the base cement pieces together (see pics). 

I really didn't like how the mortar was sticking to the cement, felt like a horrible connection. I'm heading to home depot right now before I go further, I'm gonna see what the deal is. I may just get rebar, drill into the concrete, and run a piece of rebar through the center of each leg. 

I have no idea why the mortar isn't bonding right to this stuff, it's real annoying. When I was spreading it, the trowel kept pulling the mortar off the cement! I may try using liquid bonding agent stuff on teh concrete first, I dunno (i'm quite new to anything cement related lol, clearly)


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## joeyboy

Decided on using rebar, I figured that if these legs happen to fail, at least the rebar should prevent them from completely collapsing 

Drilled through bases, put in a lil mortar, pushed the rebar in, then mortared the glass blocks into place. The blue around them is painter's tape, i just taped them to keep them in place while the mortar sets (this is my first usage of glass blocks, and one of my first masonry projects anyways).

I'm about to get those top pieces on, although I'm unsure how long I should wait before I start stucco'ing the exterior? If anyone's got a suggestion i'm all ears. I'm planning to do that this evening, as I can't really think of any reason why that would be a bad idea....


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## joeyboy

definitely not gonna be able to finish the legs today, too much time wasted running back to home depot for more stuff.

Legs are both fully assembled/mortared, these are some pics of the first round of stucco (white) on the leg that I will get 1 coat done on tonight. I'm trying to use the white mortar/stucco both surrounding the cement blocks, and in between the glass blocks, so it appears to be a continuous block all the way through (whihc is why I'm not just using grout between the glass blocks).


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## truckerwoman48

Did you ever get that all worked out?
Ideas:
1. piles of books - for stability, you would drill and run a dowel through the middle and glue the covers together
2. shop the yard sales and Goodwill stores for a pair of small end tables, then paint them, faux, whatever and use them to support the long glass
3. 4 concrete spheres from a garden statuary store, contemporary, yet airy
4. back to the yard sales and Goodwill for one of the 80's coffee tables, Spanish look, paint in several layers, rest the glass on 4 spacer objects to make it possible to put things in the gap between the base and the larger glass


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## joeyboy

http://www.diychatroom.com/showthread.php?t=8695

Here's the finished project in the showcase section of these boards, I completely forgot to link it lol. My bad!!! I have this idea that the more people post cool projects, the more we'll get others to do cool stuff that'll just become an ever progressing gallery there (the showcase section is waaay too low traffic imo). Shame on me for forgetting!!!!! I remembered to link my other 2 showcase ones, my front awning columns, and my concrete block mailbox. 

I'm almost entirely done with the stucco exterior, so I should have pics of those relatively soon there as well. I'm still finishing that, and currently building custom concrete landscape edgers (did first attempt today, it came out so funhouse, it was hilarious!!! it wasn't a real spot, it was a practice application though, so that's expected). 

In a few weeks, when all of my outdoor projects are done, I'll have some awesome before/after shots of my house from the street, it got a 100% face lift.


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