Quincy's Side Table

So I while ago I got a bunch of these old mahogany floorboards for free. A lot of them have water damage and aren't usable for flooring anymore, but I decided to make something out of them.

I sanded them up and they looked pretty nice.

We got these hanging metal baskets for like $2 each in the clearance section of Hobby Lobby.

They have a hinged door on the top that will work as a side door. They used to be like a rusty red color but I painted them gold and they look much better.

My idea is to stand them on end and put them back to back like this to make the base of the table.

I cut off the tongue and groove joinery from the edges of a few of the boards that will be the edge of the table and I whittled them round and cut them into pegs to join the boards together.

So the table top was glued together with the tongue and grooves like they are meant to as floorboards. I clamped them and pressed them as they dried to make sure everything came out flat and straight. I also made a framework out of boards that I cut up into smaller pieces and glued it together with pegs. 

When all the glue was dry I took the clamps off and stuck the frame to the top with more pegs. Then with it all set and solid I trimmed off the corners.

Then I sanded everything flat. The handheld belt sander isn't ideal for this I know, but you have to work with the tools you have.

The cages for the base were clipped together with little pieces of metal that I unbent from those little picture hanger clip things and bent them around the bars to hold it all together.

The table top is connected to the cage with cable tie down clips. The round part that would hold the wire is around the bar and then the hole that would attach the clip to a wall or something was used to screw into the bottom of the tabletop. I decided not to do a trim around the edge of the table so that you can still see some of the joinery and stuff to give it a more rustic look.

We finished the table top with a little white wash. I wanted to color it a lighter color to make it stand out more from the gold of the cage, but still be able to show the grain of the wood. It turned out pretty nice and it looks great in her room.

I am thinking of maybe putting a shelf inside to store some of her books. As it is now it works for a cage to put her stuffed animals in.