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Home » 14 Sturdy DIY Table Top Plans & Ideas

14 Sturdy DIY Table Top Plans & Ideas

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Despite having a beautifully crafted living space, does that rugged coffee table top always spoils the view? You may have stylish interiors, quality designer-themed furniture, spacious placement, and even an eye-catching wine rack, but does the tabletop seems to disturb the pleasing visuals of your home?

Altering your tabletop design could be a simple and impactful DIY opportunity for your beloved home. Whether it’s an end table, dining table, or even a side pallet table, there’s no easier project that giving the tabletop a makeover. You can use paint, stencils, tiles, glass, coins, or even bottle tops.

Besides who wouldn’t want to transform a rough and overused tabletop into something that adds to the charm in their home? Each of these DIY tabletop plans will inspire a spark of creativity and naturally force you to consider a table modification project.

14 Sturdy DIY Table Top Plans

Here are 14 brilliant DIY tabletop ideas to build something sturdy and easily manageable.

1. Inexpensive DIY Table Top Plan

diy table top plans

If you’re looking for a simple DIY project that takes less than 5 hours to complete, then this DIY tabletop plan should do you justice. You will be using knotty pine wooden boards to build the tabletop. As the knots will be scattered all over the wood, you can do some trial and error in placement patterns to figure what looks best.

The guide has a few tips on how to use wood filler and wood stain to fill the gaps and give a luscious look respectively.

2. DIY Farmhouse Table Top Plan

diy table top plans

This DIY tabletop idea eliminates the worry of farmhouse tables cracking due to breadboard ends being attached to pocket screws. Nothing better than an assurance that lets you feast with your family in peace on a crude-theme farmhouse table.

Apart from teaching you the process to build a sturdy tabletop, plenty of valuable knowledge regarding the breakage of perpendicular breadboards (with pocket screws) is given. You will use a technique that restricts factors such as seasonal wood movement from spoiling your newly built tabletop.

3. DIY Vintage Crate Table Top

diy table top ideas

Can you think of anything as unique as a crate-design tabletop? You have the freedom to detach individual pallets of the crate and create your own pattern consisting of varied horizontal and vertical pallets. 

The more wooden crates you have, the bigger a tabletop you can create. 

Don’t want to breakdown the crate? No worries. Simply follow an effective method of positioning multiple crates. This would provide you with an entirely new table, along with storage space and a fancy tabletop.

4. DIY Live Edge Table Top 

diy table top plans

When it comes to tabletops, you can either go for a basic design or opt for something that’s dashing to the naked eye. The grooves around this table make it a sensational sighting for every visitor that enters your living room. 

Focus your efforts on studying the positioning of the knots in the wood. The more you can work around them, the more lovely will the curvy edges of the table be. Expect to spend maximum time in coating the table with staining and also sanding it down. 

5. DIY Gold Leaf Glass Table Top

diy table top ideas

High-time you spice up the surface of your end table? If you’re tired of looking at the scratched surface of your glass top table every morning, then this drop-dead beauty is the solution you’re searching for.

The radiant gold fractal patterns under the glass bring your table top back to life. Whether you want a gold leaf or a jungle-themed pattern, you can customize it as you please. Although the guide mainly has great tips on how to install the classic gold leaf pattern.

6. DIY Detachable Table Top Plank Cover

diy table top plans

What better than a removable plank as a tabletop? Leave it on during family meals and simply detach it when your kids are up to mischief. Even better, people would think you’ve got a new table altogether! 

This DIY tabletop plan doesn’t require you to do anything to your existing table, except add a wooden plank bigger than the original tabletop. You don’t even need to remove the initial tabletop. Costing under $200, this is an epic solution if you’re on a tight budget but desperately need to revamp the tabletop before Christmas arrives.

7. DIY Paisley Table Top

diy table top plans

Are you an art enthusiast? Miss those childhood moments of free-hand drawing? How about getting some paint and stencils to cover your tabletop with an intricate stencil design? 

This guide takes you to several crucial checkpoints that educate the reader on how to stencil furniture and stencil painting ideas, on different kinds of tables. The complicated blend of leaves, caterpillars, and coinciding tribal patterns will give your table a century-old vibe.

8. DIY Glow Table Top

diy table top plans

Craving the sight of bioluminescent planktons in the ocean? Well, the bare minimum of painting skills could make your tabletop the next bioluminescent marvel you’ve witnessed. The glowing (photoluminescent) powder and clear casting resin together give birth to an extremely unique tabletop.

Once the glow powder settles in the ridges and gaps on the wood, a couple of hours of sunlight charges it for emitting a mild blue glow in semi or complete darkness. Try and place the table in a spot that gets natural sunlight through the window.

9. DIY Tile Table Top

diy table top ideas

Need a solid table for your outdoor patio or backyard gazebo? Being an outdoor piece of furniture, you would be needing something that can withstand harsh weathers with zero damage to the furniture. 

Merging cement boards, creating a framing, and attaching bottom wooden planks for added support would make the perfect base to sustain the weight of tiles. Don’t fill every gap with tiles. You could use pieces of broken tiles to populate the gaps and give it an overall richer and intensified look.

10. DIY LED Interactive Table Top

diy table top plans

How about something that uses a little bit of technology? Getting an LED-infused tabletop doesn’t necessarily mean you have to always eat food on a lit-up table. You can solely switch it on during birthdays, get-togethers, or festival celebrations at home. 

Apart from boasting 448 multicolored and fully-responsive LEDs, the glass tabletop comes in a frosted design. This makes the glaring surface visually bearable as the fogginess neutralizes the cumulative effect of the LEDs. 

This guide has a video tutorial, PDF picture book, and a free PDF guide regarding building the LED circuit.

11. DIY Multicolored Pallet Table Top

diy table top plans

Does your present table have a glass or badly chipped wooden tabletop? Why not reap the benefits of the classic go-to material for repurposing projects? Yes, we are referring to pallets! They are cheap and most often available in your over-crowded garden shed or basement.

You can either attach the pallets in super close proximity and attain a wholesome design, or you could follow a gap-wood-gap design to give it a breathable look. Paint them with either vibrant and shiny colors or opt for a series of low-intensity colors that showcase a fantastic end result when the pallets are placed together.

12. DIY Live Edge Desktop Table Top

diy table top ideas

The image may not show the groovy and live edge pattern, but you can access more of this in the guide. Installing such a tabletop in your creative space would contribute to your creativity due to the natural edges of the wood being on the front side. Remember to place it right in front of a bay window for the best results.

You could refer to the entire guide and build an elongated office table that uses industrial pipes for structural support. 

13. DIY Retrofitted Table Top Plan

diy table top ideas

Forget the hassle of going through strenuous re-building as mentioned in a few of the above DIY table top plans. Simply build a retrofitted table top for any table in your home, be it a nightstand or a console table

You could either permanently attach it or use it as a temporary attachment for occasions when your table needs to look elegant as ever.

14. DIY Penny Table Top Plan

diy table top plans

Irrespective of the diversity in the DIY tabletop ideas already mentioned, a surface full of pennies is something that wouldn’t cross your mind in the wildest of dreams. Finally, an entertaining motive to get those saved up childhood pennies to use. 

Gluing the pennies on the surface wouldn’t be half as hard as gluing them on the bends of the table top. Precision is the key to the beauty of this project. In the end, make sure to pour mod podge and seal all the pennies with perfection.

Verdict

You now have ample DIY table top ideas to crank up your existing table. Do not forget to keep the aspect of color-coordination in mind. Also, feel free to throw in some of your own creative elements. 

Want to give the wooden table top an increased degree of intricacy?  Try carving these scroll saw patterns and then placing a glass top.

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