Build your own balcony table – in just one hour
- Difficultyeasy
- Cost45-100 €
- Duration< 1 h
Nothing is better than spending a well-earned evening relaxing on your balcony or terrace, with a good book in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. But where can you put your snacks? Our DIY floating balcony table is the perfect solution. Thanks to its triangular shape, the DIY table will fit into any corner, which means it can be used even on the smallest of balconies.
Decide how big you want your DIY balcony table to be
The best thing about our DIY balcony table is that it’s made to measure! The table’s dimensions are 90 x 66 x 66 cm and it’s around 30 cm high. However, if you want to build a larger or smaller balcony table, you can simply adjust the measurements. Take a board and saw it into smaller and smaller pieces (e.g. 90 cm, 80 cm, 60 cm, 40 cm, 20 cm, 10 cm). Then place the sawn pieces side by side to form a triangle. Now measure the corner of your balcony and mark the measurements on the boards using a try square, making a right-angled triangle that has two sides of the same length. Next, cut the boards to the exact length you need with a jigsaw, following the lines marked in the last step.
Lay the wooden board on a workbench or other stable, raised surface. If you don’t have a way of clamping the board down, ask someone to help! A second pair of hands can then hold the board firmly against your work surface while you saw. The aim is to make sure the board doesn’t slip. Be careful! Make sure your helper’s hands are a safe distance from where you are sawing. If you have a jigsaw with a power swing, you can use it for this project – the board is thin enough that you’ll easily cut through it. Now place the saw at the edge of the board and gently move it away from you, applying light pressure. You and your helper should wear safety gloves at all times.
Build the supporting structure
To fix the boards together, you need to build a supporting structure. This consists of two slats that run parallel to the table’s outer edges. To make these, rearrange the boards into a triangle and position the slats on one of the two equal-length sides of the triangle. Make sure that the slat doesn’t sit flush with the edge of the board. Instead, it should be positioned a little way inside the triangle. Now mark the position and angle for where the triangle starts and finishes on the slat. Next, saw the slat using a jigsaw. Now repeat the same steps for the other side.
Sand down the sawn edges of the boards
To avoid splinters, you need to thoroughly sand down the edges of all of your sawn pieces. For perfect results, use the multi-sander to sand evenly without applying pressure, always moving in one direction – just like when filing a nail. We recommend wearing protective goggles to avoid getting sawdust in your eyes.
Put the balcony table together
Once you’ve sawn and sanded down the table triangle and slats for the supporting structure, you can start piecing together your DIY table. First, arrange the sawn boards to form a triangle as you did in step 1. Then, screw the slats to the sides of the triangle using 11 wood screws spaced out evenly. In total, you should use 22 screws per table surface. To avoid tearing the wood, you can pre-drill the holes for the screws and then twist the screws into place.
If you want to build a single-level balcony table, you’ll now have finished building the table surface. If you want a two-level table, you’ll need to repeat steps 1 to 4 for the lower table.
Glaze your table
To protect your DIY balcony table against the wind and rain, you can now apply a weatherproof wood glaze. Be sure to cover the floor of your workspace or you may stain it. Follow the instructions on the packaging and leave the glazed table to dry.
Saw the pipes for hanging your balcony table
While the weatherproof glaze dries (as per the manufacturer’s instructions), you can prepare the suspension system for your table. Saw your pipe into three 30 cm lengths. Make sure you clamp the pipe firmly before you start sawing! The three lengths of pipe will later help to separate the two table levels.
Suspend your DIY balcony table
Anyone can build their own balcony table. But making a balcony table fly? That takes skill. Luckily for you, we’ll show you how. Simply drill a hole in each corner of the two tables – making three holes per table. The holes should be exactly the same diameter as your rope. Next, cut the rope into three equal lengths. They must at least be long enough to pass through the pipes. Thread the rope through one of the holes in the upper table, then through one of the lengths of pipe, and finally through the matching hole in the lower table. Then, tie a knot in the rope above the upper table and below the lower table to fix the two table boards together. Finally, attach the three upper ends of the rope to your balcony rail using adjusting rings.
And that’s all there is to it! It really is that easy to build your own DIY balcony table. Now you can put your feet up and relax – so get your sunglasses on and enjoy your favourite book.