How to Make a Coffee Table From Discarded Books

Recycling your books gives you the opportunity to save money on furniture and reuse resources that might otherwise get thrown in the trash. Making your books into a furniture piece such as a coffee table is one way to put this recycling idea into action. You can make the project as simple or complex as your tastes and skill levels allow, and the end result will be a piece of furniture that not only demonstrates your commitment to reusing old items, but shows off your love of old books as well. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

1

Gather together your old books. Inspect the covers and put the books that look torn up beyond repair aside. You'll use them later in the project.

2

Sort them into piles. Place the books in piles based on their size. Paperbacks should be with paperbacks. Medium-sized books with medium-sized books and large books with other large books.

3

Go to your pile of tattered books and pull the pages out of any book that has its front cover torn off. Place these in a pile; you'll need quite a few. Throw the rest of the book parts into your paper recycling.

4

Get a piece of board that measures at least 2-by-3 feet or so. Scrap board is OK. This should be rectangular.

5

Mix your craft glue in a bowl with some water. Make the portions 1 to 1. Use a stir stick to stir the glue mixture.

6

Spread a layer of the glue/ water mixture on the board using a sponge brush. Start with small corners.

7

Paste the pages from the books onto the places where you spread the glue mixture. This technique is called decoupage. Cover the top and the sides of the board with the pages of the book so that you can't see any of the wood grain. Basically, you're going to paste the book pages onto the board as if you're wallpapering the board with book pages.

8

Allow the glue to dry.

9

Spread more of the glue mixture onto the paper-covered board. Apply several coats until it looks shiny. Allow to dry; give it a day or so.

10

Stack your books according to size. So make a stack of large books; it should be about the height of your couch cushions. Make several of these stacks. Adjust how you place the books so that they're all the same height.

11

Wrap a belt around each stack, positioning the buckle so that it's not positioned on the top nor the bottom of the stack, but rather in the middle in front of the books' pages. Buckle it up tightly. This will keep the stacks together.

12

Position the books in front of your sofa; stack them in parallel rows. Use the board as your guide as to how wide you should spread the books, because the board will be the top of the coffee table. Place the stacks of books on the corners and in the middle to make the structure solid.

13

Place the page-covered board on top of the book stacks. This becomes the table top.