apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I bought a pair of sawhorse brackets at Home Depot and used them to create my own sawhorses with a couple of 2x4s, which I painted red. Paired with a hollow core door which I stained a dark ebony, I have a really good looking desk which cost less than $50.00 to make.

My old bf had some of those yellow sawhorse legs and they were always a bit wobbly. But the good news is that if they are wobbly you can can always take them back!

I have a wood shop and have many sets of the yellow guys. THey are heavy and tough and never wobbly, unless the are set up wrong or on an uneven surface.

They are great and cheap, but I think they are UGLY, I guess i have a more refined aesthetic.

I remember I saw some display tables like that used at a store in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Painted white, they looked REALLY good under a glass tabletop. I thought about doing something similar for my kitchen table but I went another route.

Yeah, I think they are ugly too. Making do/being cheap/being broke/making a creative alternative because you're one-of-the-above is all about one thing. I'm way over this as a permanent look just because you think it's neat. I don't get putting this together on purpose to achieve an aesthetic. I think you're supposed to put a tablecloth over it, for when you're having a party, for a buffet or extra seating (goes with folding chairs). It's most practical in a workshop setting also. Could put something like this up when your dining room table is on back order. It is not without merits.

"I don't get putting this together on purpose to achieve an aesthetic."

KTG, I'm surprised that you don't get this.

This is a perfect example of a modernist approach to design, in which the materials and functional requirements determine the result. There's also a minimalist quality to using existing solutions. Not only does this fulfill the modernist mandate of 'simplification of form', but it manages to do so without compromising the adoption of expressed structure. In this case, the expressed structure manages to be a novel form without adding unnecessary ornament -- which again, is very characteristic of modernism. Finally, it also references the machine-age industrial aesthetic from which modernism was born. If you 'get' this table, then you 'get' modernism, because this is a textbook example of it.

I don't think modernism invented the makeshift table. I don't really care how you justify it, this is not marvelous. I think "yellow powdercoat" counts as unnecessary ornament. It is not a very novel form; it was seen of late at the Urban Outfitters. Kyle had to go to Home Depot to acquire pieces to make his own table, while the existing solution would be to go to a store that sells a table. The machine-age industrial aesthetic is broad enough to exclude a great many things from a comfortable home, despite being an inspiration for quite a number of other items. I don't think you can really impress upon me to like something because it's an example of something else, because all I see is the opportunity to ask, "When are you getting a real table?" I think if you're going to simplify the form, we reduce it to what one sees instead of whipping out a textbook to define what an abstract concept sees.

With a piece of plywood on top... yea functional, but under glass... sleek and rustic. It's about mixing the elements, or putting together an outfit- combining colors, textures, old and new, and accessorizing. 'Cheap' is relative. It is exciting to slip through the cracks of the designer prices and become the creator to make a statement of your own.

I could definitely see this as a great worktable; something I desperately have need of, but sadly not the space for. It is, however a bit deep for a practical desk. If one has welding skills to take off a few inches from the center of each sawhorse to shorten the depth, then it would be a great desk. It would, obviously have to go with the design of the rest of your home, or it would look rather "When are you going to get a real table."

making your own sawhorses out of wood is also a great idea and a rather simple project to do. That way you get the perfect height and depth for you!

I also think it's something that designers and people who work w/ wood and building might appreciate more. I look on it with some sentimentality because I love being in the shop and I love drafting and this brings both to mind for me. It's a little more inspiring to me as a design space than a regular desk...no matter how much practical storage or chic design it may have.

The main problem I have with sawhorse-type bases is that they cut off leg room - you can only seat people in between them. I prefer them for desks or buffet tables, for which the lack of leg room wouldn't be such an issue.

I sort of hate bright yellow, so this doesn't really do it for me - I'd like it better in black.