I have admired drafting tables for a while now. I love their lines, their function, and their generally rustic quality. I have gawked at this one Restoration Hardware sells since they started carrying it.
As luck would have it, Tim found a drafting table in a warehouse he was helping my dad clean out a couple of years ago. He instantly called dibs on it and brought it home to find a place in our house. You’ve never seen the drafting table before because it didn’t have a proper home. . . until now. It was a wonderful addition to the upstairs room (part of which is an office). Although we loved the drafting table as it was, we needed to make a few slight changes to make it perfect for this particular room. Here’s a drafting table that looked similar to ours before our mini makeover.
The wood top on ours wasn’t quite as nice as the one above and it was a little too big for the area we wanted to put it in. So, instead of throwing out the idea of using the drafting table all together, Tim made a new top for it. He started by cutting 3/4 in plywood to the dimensions we wanted our drafting table top. Then entered “cold rolled steel.”
We love the look of cold rolled steel and have used on a bunch a projects in the past. Architects love to use the material to give homes a sleek modern look (like this one below).
House found here
Cold rolled steel has to be sealed or it will rust, which is sometimes not a bad thing. Look how warm and inviting the color is after a few months of exposure to the elements! Pretty cool right!?
house by CLB Architects
I like both looks (sealed and rusted) but for our upstairs room, we needed to bring in a metallic finish to balance out the wood feature walls and wood floors. So Tim ordered a piece from our local sheet metal shop in the exact dimensions he needed to cover the new top.
When it came in, Tim applied the steel to the wood with a strong spray adhesive. And here’s how our new drafting table looks with its new sealed steel top!
So do you like it? Do you have a drafting table or a super cool desk? And are you a fan of cold rolled steel?
‘Til tomorrow!
LOVE the drafting table….but I need to know about this book page wallpaper. How did you apply it? Is there a way we could do something similar non-permanently? (We’re renters.)
Pretty sweet, and I’m in love with the old pages as wall paper as well!!
i love the mix of metal with rustic. My dream (one of many!) is to build a barn with rusty old metal siding. Love that!
We are adding an island to our kitchen. The room is very cottage/farmhouse with white cabinets, open shelving, and butcher block counters. However I wanted a bit of industrial and also have a stainless shelf unit holding lots of pots and pans and other kitchen things. I’d love a stainless top for my island, but the custom-sized version is too pricey for my budget. Do you think something like this would be an option?