I had this old IKEA Emhult dining table that was just wasting space and gathering dust here at home. I tried to sell it without success, then I remembered this tiled kitchen table a friend of mine used to have and I thought something like it for a coffee table would be very charming and give a special touch to our living room.

Then, after A LOT of thinking and planning, my personal handyman (aka, the husband) and I decided to put our bodies and minds to work and finally built it. The result and everything we used I’ll describe below. I hope you like it! I’m extremely proud of ourselves. 🙂

Things you will need:

An IKEA Emhult dining table – length: 118 cm, width: 74 cm, height: 72 cm (or any table you happen to have)

15 tiles, 20*20 cm

3 sheets of white mosaic, 2*2 cm

500 grams of white grout

16 nails

All-purpose glue

Patience and skill 😛

Tools:

A jigsaw

Hammer

Sponge and piece of cloth

Step 1: disassembling original table.

First, we had to disassemble the table, keeping only the four legs and the table top.

Step 2: shortening legs and creating a central gap.

Then, as our idea was to transform it into a coffee table, we had to shorten the legs making them 35 cm tall. As the centre tiles were taller than the edges ones I had to create a gap so in the end they would be all even.

Another thing we had to do, but you can totally skip it, was the creation of an 1 cm gap in the middle of the table (using the jigsaw). We needed to do it as the tiles I bought to use in the centre were taller (1.5 cm height) than the ones I got for the edges (0.5 cm height). By doing that, it the end we would have an even surface for our table. 🙂

Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten to take a photo of this part, but when shortening the legs we’d also created a 1 cm gap in half of it. Like an L. So we would have half glued to the frames and the other half to the deeper centre area.

Important: the following measurements were based on the size of my tiles, and also the design I had in mind for the table. Depending what you have in mind and the tiles you are planning to use, these measurements can change.

Step 3: assembling it back.

After everything was cut into the sizes we needed, it was time to assemble everything back. The process was very simple, just a matter of using the nails and the hammer to fix each leg to the table top.

We used 4 nails for each leg. Two holding the middle area and the other two for the frame. We didn’t add anything else and the table looks pretty stable until now. 😀

Step 4: extra white layer.

I love an extra work so I decided to paint it in white to have a better finishing result. This is totally optional. 😛

Step 5: placing tiles.

Now is the fun time! Before gluing the tiles to the table, I’ve first placed them all (the central ones) and confirmed I was happy with the composition, then I just moved up one of them at each time, added glue on the space and put it back. Repeating until I had all of them well placed.

Next, I did the same with the small ones all around the edges.

Step 6: applying grout.

After we had all tiles in place, it was time to make things even more professional with some grout. This one was just a matter of preparing the grout following the package directions and then placing it all over the table, making sure to fill every empty area. It will look a mess, but trust me, in the end it will work!

Next, using a piece of cloth I just removed the excess and let it dry around 20 minutes. Then using a kitchen sponge (of course, a new one) and a bit of water I cleaned all the grout excess out.

Step 7: It’s done! Final view.

Here it is the final result of our long weekend experiment. I love it so much! Have I already said how proud of us I am? Not only because it looks very pretty and gives a special touch to our living room, but also all the work, planning and fun we had over the weekend to get it done.

It brings me very good memories everytime I place my cup of coffee over it and have my afternoon snack. 🙂

So, I’m waiting here to see who got excited and created something like this. Please, let me know by commenting below. 🙂