DIY, or, Need is the Mother of Invention

When a poor architecture student and a starter-wage architect move into their first home together, it is very, very easy to spend the limited furniture budget on design classics which we (read I) have always dreamed of having in our house. So, the limited buget got us a pair of Eames chairs and a few tins of paint. But, two dining chairs, surprisingly, wouldn't quite fill up the space. We got a sofa from IKEA, but needed a coffee table. Since I had quite strict requirements for this table (Must be a specific size, not too big, and must have a shelf for books under the tabletop) and limited resources, this one was concocted one late friday evening with the man sleeping peacefully on the sofa, amazingly ignoring my drilling and sawing.

So, take a few bits of "furnitureboard" (pine board from B&Q, the UK's equivalent to Maxbo) and one length of industrial steel angle from said shop, a couple of screws, and voila! Budget coffee table which fulfills all our needs!

In time I will paint it (pine isn't exactly known for aging gracefully), but for now, it adds a nice, somewhat Norwegian exposed wood feel to the living room.

Student budgets don't always have to be (entirely) spent at IKEA!
(I say that, and then I also post a picture of how useful a spare shelf bracket became when we needed to hang up this cool enamel lampshade which the man got from Brick Lane! It's all about the balance, right?)