Christmas Crafts Coffee Table

Christmas Crafts Coffee Table

As Christmas draws nearer you might find you need a few gifts and you really do not know what to buy. Try making something. Crafting is easy and fun, you can also make some money on the side.

One of our most popular items is the window coffee table. We have made several of these from parts found on the side of the road. Except for the paint, all of the materials were free. Drive around on a Sunday afternoon to see what items people have put at the road for trash pickup. These are free so take whatever you may need. You are saving your local landfill by doing this. For the coffee table we used an old window, some short table legs and a few pieces of baseboard or crown molding(which I will call trim). Measure the window and cut the trim to fit around the window and form a skirt. Glue and nail these into place with the window top down. We use small brad nails. Then attach the legs to the inside of the trim with more glue and nails. Flip it over and you have a unique coffee table. Apply a couple of coats of paint so that all of the pieces match and you are finished.

You can go a step further and decorate the panes to create a shadow box. One table we did had sand and seashells on the panes. Another had pictures of our granddaughter. If you do something extra like this simply cut a piece of acrylic or plexiglass to fit the top, or you could have a piece of glass cut to fit. Sorry, but I could not find a picture of this one, email me for more details.

We found an excellent air compressor and brad nail gun combo kit at The Home Depot for $80. It has a small 1 gallon compressor and a 1-1/4” nail/staple gun. That is a great price.

Christmas Crafts Hall Tree

As Christmas draws nearer you might find you need a few gifts and you really do not know what to buy. Try making something. Crafting is easy and fun, you can also make some money on the side.

Another craft we like to make and sell at the antique mall is a hall tree. A hall tree is a piece of furniture that usually sits inside your front door with multiple storage areas. Here are some of the features that a hall tree might have. A seat with storage underneath, shelves, coat and hat hooks, drawers, mirror and a place for umbrellas.

Here is how we made the simple hall tree pictured. We found an old door, which was unusually narrow, but looked great. I left the knob in place for an added decorative look. I cut two pieces of stained wood to make the shelves. I screwed the shelves in from the back side of the door. Then I miter cut some crown molding to trim the shelves and attached them with glue and the nail gun. Then I supported the shelves with two old table legs and added feet for the bottom shelf. After that we painted everything except the shelves black and added some coat hooks. A framed mirror or piece of art would look nice hanging in the center. This was a very quick and easy project. Painting took the most time. I would suggest having someone help hold the parts in place for attachment. We sold this at the antique mall for $100. Not bad for something easy and fun to make.

We found an excellent air compressor and brad nail gun combo kit at The Home Depot for $80. It has a small 1 gallon compressor and a 1-1/4” nail/staple gun. That is a great price.