Cast Cement

Little Cement Low Table or Plant Stand with Chunky Legs

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Every now and then I have a project that just doesn’t work out, at least not in time for the next time I want to post. This happened right before a recent Christmas-time trip to visit my sister and her family. In fact, two projects didn’t work well enough to put out there on the web. That left me in a bit of a bind, being away from home and not able to work on another project. Well the good news is, the break at Christmas gave me a chance to get a project gallery onto my blog, something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Check it out in the menu bar above.  Another thing I had time for during the break is starting a new community Pinterest board–Concrete and Cement Furniture/Decor/Garden Community Board.  I started it because I wanted a place for concrete/cement enthusiasts to have a place to gather and post.  Check it out and follow the board if you like it.  If you want to join as a contributor, type “ADD ME” on this pin https://www.pinterest.com/pin/500603314815473738/ (shown below).

DIY Furniture Studio Concrete and Cement Furniture/Decor/Garden Community Board.

I’ll then send you an invite to the board, and after you accept the invite you can add pins to the board.  You know who you are, and you need to join!

During the Christmas trip, I spent considerable time with paper and a pencil on airplanes.  I now have many furniture and decor ideas that need developing, and the procedures and details ferreted out–which for me usually takes some time and trial and error.  Okay, to make a long story short, I still needed a project to put up on the blog in the short term, so I wandered around the house looking at what I had and came up with an idea.  I call it a little cement low table with chunky legs, aka a cement plant stand with chunky legs.

DIY Cement Low Table or Plant Stand with Chunky Legs.

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DIY Cement Replacement Sofa Legs for IKEA and Other Brands

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DIY cement replacement sofa legs for IKEA and other brands hack feature photo with tree stump side table

You can add originality to your sofa with do-it-yourself cement legs.  These beautiful “designer” replacement legs were made of cement that was cast into low-cost drinking glasses used as molds.

close up of DIY cement replacement sofa legs for IKEA and other brands
DIY cement replacement sofa legs with bamboo magazine rack.

Often when I’m thinking about making furniture, I first decide what shape or style I want and then work through what material and tool choices I have to see if I can get it done.  In the case of these legs, I wanted mid-century modern tapered loveliness, but I didn’t have a lathe to be able to shape wood in the conventional way.  I perseverated for months.  I bought an 80-year-old non-working lathe but later had to admit to myself that I wasn’t ready to get on that train.  I tried sanding round and square dowels to the tapered shape.  This sort of worked, but was very slow.  I thought of buying flat wooden craft circles of different sizes, stacking and gluing them to get the shape.  Wow, a lot of work.  Also, when I thought about different ways of making the coveted mid-century modern tapered leg, I always weighed the reality that I could make it this way (whatever way I was considering), but if it was going to look bad (and there was a good possibility of it looking bad), and the tools and supplies were going to cost a fair bit of money, why not just go to one of those Etsy shops and drop a few dollars on some very lovely turned wood tapered legs.  Why not!

Well, some day I probably will, but in the meantime, the cement idea came to me.  And as much as I like tapered wood legs, I adore the aesthetics of the concrete.  And I can make four of them for less than buying one of the wood lovelies, which is a consideration right now, with wood lovelies being way down on the list of things to spend money on.

Please take a few minutes to read the disclaimer/terms of condition for my blog.  Now on to the show.

The Cement Replacement Sofa Leg project has three main parts:

  • Set up for making the cement leg
  • Making the cement legs
  • Installing cement legs on sofa

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