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Each hairpin leg furniture project is unique to its builder, and that’s how it should be. That’s the point of making your own custom furniture! Today we’re asking a basic question, ‘How many hairpin legs do I need?’ The obvious answer might be four legs. After all, four legs are what comes standard on most tables, chairs, desks, and the like. But your project is going to be a custom project, right? Think about what works for you.

Four hairpin legs will work just fine on lots of projects. But just because that’s standard, doesn’t mean that is what you have to go with. We’ve seen customer projects that utilize more and less than four with impressive results. Some tables work great with three legs. Stools often utilize three preventing them from rocking when there are slight variations in the floor. Long tables– especially thin ones–can benefit from extra hairpin legs to support the weight in the middle of a long expanse. Or perhaps hairpin legs don’t give the breadth of coverage you’re looking for and you decide to use bench legs!

Our metal bench legs do an amazing job of supporting a large amount of weight. Just as with hairpin legs, bench legs can be used in a combination of numbers to best support your project. Your project can utilize a pair of bench legs, one for each end. Additional numbers can be used in the same way as hairpin legs when supporting a long table. And if you’re in the position to attach one end of a table to a wall, you can use just one bench leg. The creative process is full of possibilities! We hope these DIY furniture projects from our customers help jump start your creative process.

There’s something about barn boards. They hold the elements at bay for fifty or a hundred years and boy that really adds character to wood. Wood that has stood up to the elements for decades can certainly hold up to a second life as indoor furniture. Old barn boards are often from the era of hand crafting. Sometimes the evidence of being hand worked remains adding another dimension to your furniture. Elisabeth’s reclaimed barn board table looks right at home with the hairpin table legs she chose.

In a time of myriad building materials, it can be refreshing to combine some of our oldest building materials with brand new ones. These boards are reclaimed from a historic barn in Vermont. We think they look just perfect with our hairpin legs. Notice Elizabeth chose our Just the Tip hairpin legs. They can be used to support heavier tables as they provide more of a “foot” than other hairpin legs. Or they can be chosen just because that’s the style you like best. For whatever reason, they go perfectly! If you’re looking for wood for your hairpin leg table, keep an eye out for historic buildings that are being renovated or deconstructed. Materials from these structures are often saved for reuse so people can repurpose the historic materials. You can also see if there is a reused building material center in your area. Attach your hairpin legs and you’re off and running!

Thanks for the inspiration Elisabeth, we love it!

Sitting in a room with a piece of furniture you made yourself can create peace and relaxation. This can be especially so when your hairpin leg table is a Zen garden! Jon made this creative Zen garden table for the ultimate relaxation experience. It is always amazing to see the creativity of our customers and this is a great one!

Our hairpin legs are truly designed to create a solid support to whatever amazing project you come up with. They are a steadfast reliable way of supporting your creations. This table is the perfect example! Glass and sand are combined with wood to create an artistic and conscientious experience…all in a piece of furniture! Amazing job, Jon, we’re impressed!

All our hairpin leg varieties are made of steel rod. They come to ready for your table in their raw steel color. Adding some kind of finish to them is always an option. Jon opted to make the hairpin legs on his table even darker than the natural steel color. This helps them fade into the background and simply do their job of supporting the table – without detracting from the attention this unique piece deserves.

There are many ways to finish hairpin legs if you want. They can remain the they are or you could paint or clear coat them. On a different piece of furniture, painting the legs a bright color could bring desired attention to the legs. The options are endless. But we certainly like the idea of sitting around this one-of-a-kind table!

A desk can be a large piece of construction with lots of drawers and surfaces or it can be a light airy piece of furniture like this one Todd at ABP Works built. Metal legs provide lots of options and they can be short hairpin legs or tall angle iron legs…whatever is the right look for the finished piece!

Not only is this black walnut desk lighter in many ways than a traditional desk; it’s also easier to build. The live edge keep the desk unique while also providing a bit more surface area to work on. Just like our hairpin legs, our tapered angle iron legs come in a variety of sizes. We can build them anywhere from 4″ to 30″.

Todd chose to use the larger of our two dimensions for this table, and we think it came out beautifully! Todd built this to be a desk or a writing table. Its shape lends itself perfectly to being a foyer or console table too. The nice thick slab (2″ x 62″) will hold up almost anything that needs support in the average home, and 30 inches tall is a very useful height for work or entertainment.

Thanks for sharing the photos Todd…it looks great!

We’ve been sending Todd at ABP Works modern furniture legs for a while now, but these creations really jump out when we look back at projects! Working with solid slabs of wood can lead to wonderful results, but they come with their own challenges. The deep cracks in the wood might seem like a problem to solve, but they are also an opportunity for color. Todd used turquois inlay butterfly splines to keep the wood solid. The light color of the butterfly splines does more than physically tie together the wood. They also visually connect the smaller bits of light colored wood throughout.

Todd’s use of turquoise inlay is a second way to create an exceptional table. Though turquoise is one of the more common colors for inlay, there is certainly room for variety if you’re thinking of inlay. We’ve also seen customers add color by painting some or all of the tabletop. And of course the hairpin legs themselves can be painted. Look for paints that work well on metal, and think about adding a clear coat afterwards.

Todd’s second table is another live edge slab table with turquois inlay. This table uses the Twist hairpin legs. Check out the contrast between the two tables and the difference in their hairpin legs. This table has much straighter lines than the previous one. The Twist hairpin legs can a lot of variation to the strait angles of this table. All in all, Todd’s tables offer a lot of food for thought as you plan your own hairpin leg table. Thanks for sharing Todd!

Slab wood offers so many options and opportunities for furniture. Slabs can be long and thin boards that retain the live edge. They can also be large and irregular pieces. No matter what type of slab you’re looking for or working with, each and every one is unique. This amazing slab table is Mike’s latest creation. Mike is at Wood Shed Production and they create stunning work, as you can see.

We love that our modern furniture legs can lend support–pun intended–to such amazing creations. There are many reasons we offer such variety of metal lets. Our hairpin legs come in a variety of styles and diameters. Our metal bench legs come in two styles. Offering different sizes of metal legs can serve as a jumping off point. We know that with the many options of hairpin legs and bench legs we offer, you may need something different. Mike knows that too. The spalted maple slab Mike used for this amazing table has different thicknesses throughout the table. How can that be accommodated? With bench legs of different heights. We were happy to create a custom order for Mike and we’re glad we did – the result is amazing! If you’re not seeing exactly what works for you on our website, shoot us an email; chances are we can come up with something that will work for you. And send us a picture when you’re done!

Custom made hairpin leg furniture brings out beauty as you see it; it gives you the opportunity to create what you love. Jon’s moss garden kitchen table is a perfect example! This is an amazing table! Jon says,

I thought I would send you a picture of your wonderful legs on the table I designed. They look great. I wanted a moss garden kitchen table, and came up with an idea of adding the tiny LEDs to simulate fireflies at night. I am super happy with how it turned out.

We’re very impressed Jon! This is a truly unique table that expresses the creator. It is so satisfying to know our hairpin legs are helping folks create such masterpieces! One reason we make such durable legs is so customers feel confident their creations will be solidly supported. Our hairpin legs come in a choice of diameters: 3/8-inch, ½-inch, or 5/8-inch steel rod. That’s right, they are made of steel rod which makes them extremely durable. They also have a solid pad to bolt or screw to the underside of your tabletop.

Your custom creation will be sturdily held up. The wide variety of height choices we offer ensures whatever height you want your table; you don’t have to sacrifice tabletop dimensions. Our hairpin legs are available in even inch sizes from 4-inches to 30-inches. Simply calculating the overall height, you want the table and then subtracting the height of your tabletop to get your hairpin leg height! Thank you Jon for sharing this amazing table. We can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

Tapered angle iron table legs – as well as our other metal legs – offer a great option for small spaces. If you’re making a custom table, you get to decide just how many legs you need and how much space you’d like to use. Four table legs may be standard, but there is no reason to stick to that number. Customers have used more than four legs for long tables and we also have customers that have customized their furniture to use fewer than four metal legs.

Building a triangular table for example, perfectly accommodates three hairpin legs. For particularly small or specialized spaces in your home, fewer than three may be ideal. Supporting part of the table against a wall can be an excellent space-saving method. That is exactly what Kevin did with this beautiful stairway landing table.

Kevin decided to cleat the table in the back and use our angle iron metal legs in the front. This is a perfect use of space! The angle iron legs complete the sleek efficient look this table creates. Our hairpin legs do that as well. Choosing a style of hairpin legs that works best with your table is fun!

Our Just the Tip hairpin legs are a great choice of hairpin leg that would also work perfectly in this application. But you needn’t be limited by our suggestions – check out all of our hairpin leg styles to see what you like. We have also seen our bench supports used in this type of application. Attaching one side of a table to the wall, your table can be supported by one bench support on the other end. The possibilities are endless. We just love seeing they ways folks come up with great custom furniture that meets the needs of unique spaces!