For a while now, I have been considering upgrading my coffee table, by first changing its feet. I just did! It didn’t go so well but it isn’t the end of the story. I wish it had been the end of this first part.

With the move to our new apartment coming soon, I have felt the urgent need to upgrade some of my furniture and other smaller items. Things I’ve been meaning to do for the longest time but never seem to get to. My desk lamp is in need of a fresh coat of paint, some of the lamp shades we have really need to be refreshed, one of the dining chairs renovation was never finished and indeed the feet of my coffee table needed an upgrade!

My vintage coffee table

I had this table for a long time. One of my aunt gave it to me, years back and she had it for years before, if not decades. It was given to her by someone else. It’s old! Not antique old, but 100% vintage!

The table is massive wood. The top is thick and I still kind of love it. I’m not a fan that it is varnished, but then again you can put a mug or a glass on varnished wood and not leave a stain, which is a big plus for a coffee table. You can wash it with a wet sponge too! Such varnish is a little chipped at places and tired overall, so I will handle this in part 2!

The biggest issue I add for now, with such table, were her feet. I just couldn’t stand them anymore. Not just because I spent way too much time dusting them!

I will admit I have considered getting a new coffee table but the move and the apartment requires so many spending already, I thought changing the legs of such table was a small upgrade that would change its look, without breaking the bank. So I did, or so is how the story starts.

There are so many types of furniture feet sold online!!

On to shopping for feet! In all seriousness, I had no idea how many sorts of feet existed! Sure, you can see different sorts of feet when you go to shops, on different types of furniture. But I had no idea you could actually buy them separately! They come not only in all sorts of shape and materials but also in size.

Indeed, I amazed myself by how ignorant I was on such non important topic!

Yes, I bought the one I chose from Amazon. I’m not proud of using Amazon so much but the variety of products available is hard to beat, amongst other things.

My new feet were made in Germany. This is usually a guarantee of good quality and good craftsmanship… Well, will see about that.

Amazon delivered quickly and here I am in the middle of what space is left in my living room, in between boxes, table upside down.

Removing the old feet & installing the new ones

Removing the old feet was far easier than I had expected. The ingenuously of the installation amazed me. Once all the wedges (I think that’s what they are?) were unscrewed the feet came off as a whole. Really ingenious I think!

I used the feet to mark on the table the placement of the 6 screws and used my neighbor friendly drill to start the holes. Do note that I had marked on the drill the maximum length of the holes to be made, to make sure I wouldn’t drill through the whole table top!

Screwing the 6 screw was much easier that I had anticipated too. Except for one, because there always has to be one that is a little off center!

Then I went on to admire my glorious achievement by having tea and some raspberries and chocolate cake with a good splash of blueberries sauce! Yes, this all piece was just a Machiavellian plan solely fomented to display one of the vintage china set I had not yet used in picture!

I repeated the above with the second feet and congratulate myself again for a job well done!

Then I turned the table around and voila!

No actually, not voila….not at all 😦

Did it end well?

Darn, the job was not well done at all!! The table was wobbly, terribly wobbly.

I put it back upside down, measured the feet again and again… One side of one feet was 0.05cm taller than the others. Sh@#*$&ttttttt!!!!

Don’t laugh at me, I had checked visually before installing them and they looked identical. I had noticed a couple things that weren’t perfect, but not that.

What’s the plan now?

For now, the table is back in its place, with extra little felt pieces under one side of the problematic feet, to make it stable. I will communicate with Amazon and/or the seller. I will probably purchase a new set of feet. Pray that it will be the right size. Replace the problematic feet and return the 2 extra ones.

This isn’t ideal really but I guess it happens. Although I must say I have usually no issues with the things I order, partly because I’m super attentive to the comments. There were complaints in the comments but not of the sort!

Later, once we have moved and I got used to the wood flooring color, I will decide how to handle the top of the table and its varnish! This really wasn’t the plan but so is life!

It has not ended well yet, so it just isn’t the end!

At least I got tea!