5 Easy Furniture Pieces You Can Make with Hairpin Legs

Use hairpin legs to turn all kinds of ordinary objects into fun, funky furniture.

FAMILY HANDYMAN

A hallmark of mid-century modern decor, hairpin legs are durable, trendy and readily available for purchase at a number of online retailers. Find out how to build one of these five simple projects that require just a few materials and even fewer hours of your time.

What Are Hairpin Legs?

A hairpin leg is a type of furniture leg with a distinctive shape that resembles a hairpin.  Typically made of steel or iron, these components are often found in mid-century modern and contemporary furniture.

Hairpin legs are popular with furniture builders and restorers because they’re easy to install, widely available and an excellent way to add a modern twist to any piece of furniture you attach them to. They can be mounted on nearly any material using common hardware. They’re also quite stable, making them a fantastic option for many kinds of furniture including tables, chairs and benches.

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Hairpin Leg Desk
Via Hairpinlegs.com

Build a Simple Desk

DIYing a desk doesn’t need to be an intermediate project. If a simple writing desk will do, this table shown can be assembled by any beginner in just an afternoon. First, you’ll need to select your legs—a great resource is hairpinlegs.com, which offers a variety of styles and sizes. Hairpin legs typically comprise two or three rods per leg, with three usually being used for larger items like desks or dining tables for extra stability.

Since the standard height for a desk is on average 28 to 30 inches, choose your leg size accordingly, but remember—this project can be completely customized to your own specifications. A sheet of plywood cut to size makes for an easy top, then finish the wooden table top with a topcoat of your liking. For a more polished look, mask the raw edges of the plywood with an iron-on veneer in a coordinating material.

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Diy Entryway With Hairpin Bench
Via Thirtyeighthstreet.com

Create an Entryway Bench

An upholstered bench, like the one pictured, should not pose a problem for someone who has previously reupholstered a chair or some other piece of furniture. To get the look of the one shown, courtesy of Carrie from Thirty Eighth Street, cut down a piece of plywood to your preferred size and attach a piece of four-inch high-density foam with a spray adhesive. Wrap a piece of batting around the whole thing, stapling it to the bottom of the plywood loosely on all four sides.

When you’re ready to attach the fabric—upholstery fabric is best for a project like this, for its durability—make sure the pattern is lined up exactly where you want it to be before wrapping it around the seat and stapling it underneath. Finally, mark off a spot for each of the hairpin legs, ensuring they are the same amount of space away from the edges on each corner, before securing them with screws.

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Stump Planter
via notjustahousewife.net

Give Plants a Spot to Perch

Stacy from Not Just a Housewife made this organic planter from an old tree stump and a small set of hairpin legs. If you can get your hands on a similar piece of wood (be sure to check the free sections of Craigslist or other websites for selling unwanted stuff), you’ll need a drill, chisel and jigsaw to hollow it out. Stacy started by cutting a circle around the perimeter with a jigsaw. She used a bore bit to cut out small sections of the stump slowly, and a chisel to remove any remaining pieces manually.

When the opening of the planter was six inches deep, she sealed the inside with an exterior-grade urethane finish to prevent rot and drilled a drainage hole to prevent water from pooling inside. Three hairpin legs lift it off the ground.

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Diy Coffee Table made with an old door and hair pin legs
via farmhousemade.com

Use Salvaged Materials to Make a Coffee Table

Continuing the trend of using reclaimed materials, bloggers Kim and Andrew of Farmhouse Made used an old shutter to serve as a surface for their DIY coffee table. All this project requires is cleaning up the wood, removing the hardware if you wish, then attaching the hairpin legs underneath.

Another option is to use an old doo that’s been cut down to size. Repurposed materials that are older than 1978 may have been painted with lead paint, so take the appropriate precautions.

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Diy Nightstand With Hairpin Legs
Via Pillarboxblue.com

Repurpose a Wine Crate into a Nightstand

The oversized hairpin legs and papered back of this nightstand by Claire of Pillar Box Blue make it fresh, funky, and budget-friendly. To build this piece, Claire used the lid of a wine crate to make two shelves for her son’s books, tablet and other belongings. The top shelf simply sits atop four screws driven halfway into the interior sides of the crate; the bottom “lip” is secured by the front set of hairpin legs.

A dark wax gives the crate some age, but you could also use stain. Just seal it to protect it from water spills. To add a punch of color, paint the back with chalk paint or line it with wallpaper or scraps of fabric. Use a spray adhesive to secure them, and smooth out any air bubbles as you go with a credit card.