LP Coffee Table

I built this table as a gift for a friend’s birthday. Simple MDF frame with plywood drawers and a wormy maple/glass top. I built a sort of shadowbox or recess under the top glass and put records in it. I got the idea from another project I saw on LumberJocks:

I took it one step further and added a strip of color changing LED lights under the top edge of the wormy maple. They operate off a simple remote control (an IR sensor is hidden in the corner of the records), and really make the table come alive I think.

Prepping the wormy maple top frame:

Very simple body construction:

The finished product:

And some shots with the lights on:

I hid the control module for the lights underneath the body of the table, so aside from the power cord coming out, you’d never really know there are lights in it until you turn them on via the remote control. I got the lights from amazon.com. I was a little leery of them because of their low price, but was very impressed once I got them in hand.

I finished the table with a dark brown paint on the body (to match the birthday girl’s furniture), and the wormy maple top edge was treated to General Finishes High Performance Polyurethane Gloss Topcoat. I think it did a really nice job of bringing out the colors in the maple.

-- Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an axe, and hammer to fit.