A friend of ours told recently us about the furniture that the folks at the graphic design studio, Oat, made for their studio in Somerville. We loved the idea, and when we went to check it out we had a great time visiting and hearing how they made it. Rory, Oat's founder, took plumbing pipes and joined them, making creative desks and a simple coffee table that wouldn't be too hard to customize yourself. More details and photos after the jump
Rory connected inexpensive black pipes from Home Depot in an simply designed desk and coffee table. We loved the thin-diameter pipes he used which made the pieces look elegant, and their well thought-out design. The desktops are reclaimed walnut which add to their rough industrial look. He and Jen, Oat's co-founder and creative director, had the pipes cut to length and then screwed them together themselves. This would be a great look for desk in a home office, or a coffee table customized to a odd-sized space.
Oat is a talented, small graphic design studio whose clients include Wagamama, Porches Inn, Harvard Graduate School of Design and MTV. Their work is forward-thinking and original, as we could tell from their fun and unique office. While we were hanging out talking to Rory, Jen and Sara, we also noticed and became enamored with their cool tumbleweed of white picket fence, a sculpture given to them by friend and artist Lauren Was, who is a graduate of RISD and based in NYC.
Rory said that the approximate cost of the desk with all of the fittings and pipe was less than $80. This didn't include the tabletop. You can find reclaimed lumber for that at a lumber yard.
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i love this idea.
This is a well made piece, not cheap looking like a lot of pipe-made funriture. Nice !
beautiful and honest materials
i love it!
fabulous idea; love the pieces
I have a coffee table and side table with plumping pipe legs. If you plan to make these, just remember the whole righty/tighty and lefty/loosey can cause you to rethink your design a few times. errgh!
*swoon* i'm in love.
How efficient! I absolutely love it.
Holy crap, I absolutely love this. Reminds me of the pipe railings on older houses.
I like this.....industrial and earthy!!
I hate the piped furniture look. thumbs down
We've done the same thing with our dining table and coffee table.
dining table
http://www.flickr.com/photos/extramundane/8348170/
coffee table
http://www.flickr.com/photos/extramundane/295710182/
I'm not sure how they cut the pipes to size and fitted them together (glue??) because these types of pipes are meant to screw together. This detail can make it a little difficult to get lengths just right.
I love how they've use curvy pieces. Looks great!
And if planned carefully, those pipe could hide ugly cords for office gear. Great pieces!
has the feel in silhouette of a chinese alter table...
TODD OLDHAM did his entire showroom and store in soho with plumbers pipe. he also did a TODD TIME show on mtv showing how to do it. he is the original plumber's pipe furniture crafter extraordinaire.
Not quite the same but have you ever seen PVC pipes made into furniture? You could spray pain them to give them an industrial look. It would be a whole lot cheaper.
"pain them" paint them. Opps.
I know this is a few months old, but I just had to comment. First of all... I LOVE this. Second, to Ace, who wondered how they did this (Glue?) they screwed them together. I don't know about Home Depot, but I know at Lowes they will cut the pipe to the lenghth you want & re-thread the end of it so that it will still screw together. So, you just plan wisely and have all your measurements before you go to the store. Voila.
if anyone's still reading comments on this post... i've been thinking about doing the same thing for a while since i love the look of piping and we need a desk to fit in an oddly sized space, but just wondering how you attach the top to the pipe?
@emilykristin You can attach the pipe to the table top using a floor flange. The flange sizes match the pipe sizes that are available.
I love this table design idea. It is so steam punk. My husband and I have been wanting to build something like this for a long time. I have now seen the inspiration I needed to get myself started. Thank you for sharing the great pics.
does anyone know how we can assemble the plumbing pipes together as shown... don't the pipes screw into the fittings in one direction... if so, how can we fit everything in when the pipes can rotate only in one direction... (the right hand rule).
I have been drooling over this desk since I first laid eyes on this post and I finally made it! I used a salvaged door from the street and about $80 of pipe from the hardware store. I've been using this desk every day for 6 months and can't see myself ever giving it up.
http://artingstarvist.blogspot.com/2011/04/diy-pipe-desk-with-salvaged-door.html
@kirstenruby - NICE work! Great inspiration. :)
I know it has been a while since garychen17 asked, but the desk above has to have been built with kee klamps and unthreaded pipe, or with a union tee, which lets the threaded female part rotate while the threaded pipe and the tee fitting remain stationary. (It's similar to the connector on a garden hose.)
You can also buy a "union" to join two threaded pipes end-to-end without having to twist the pipes, or you can screw flanges to the pipe ends and then bolt the flanges together.
I am wondering what diameter pipe was used for this? It looks like 3/4in, but maybe it's 1in.
How did they secure the table top to the piping? Did they use screws or is the wood just laid on top?
The table looks great, not that easy to make. You can easily find the right lengths of threaded black or galvanized pipe at Home Depot or Lowes. The difficulty comes when you start the assembly, most all pipe you purchase you turn the pipe to the right to screw it into a fitting, if the fitting on the other end is stationary, it is impossible to tighten both sides. When you tighten on side it loosens the other side. If you has a reverse thread on the other end of the pipe the problem is solved. This allows you to tighten both fitting, one on each side of the pipe by turning the pipe in one direction. To get your pipe threaded this way you will need to go to pipe fabricator, Lowes and Home Depot do not have the capability to reverse thread pipe. Substantial cost increase to have all the pipe threaded this way. As said above in previous comment, re think your design so you can use off the shelf threaded pipe and tighten every joint.