Pia inherited a small antique file cabinet piece from a friend and immediately knew she wanted it to be a bedside table. Just the right size, and two small drawers with a sliding divider inside, make it the perfect fit next to her bed. But how to attach legs without having to make extensive changes to the old piece? Turns out the bottom of the cabinet is inset about 3/8" from the bottom of the sides. Inspiration struck: We can loosely rest the cabinet on a 3/8" plywood platform. Legs can be made from standard galvanized pipe screwed into pipe flanges, and the floor protected with plastic disks glued to the pipe.

A quick trip to Home Depot, selecting the right pipe diameter (1/2" internal diameter), having the pipe cut to 9 1/4" length and thread cut into one end, find vinyl disks of the right size, and we were set. I cut plywood to size, did a dry fit, and then affixed the flanges to the plywood, letting the flanges protrude a bit outside so the cabinet sides could rest directly on the flanges and not let the brittle bottom wood take all the load. Then I cleaned the pipes with degreaser, and sanded them with 60 grit paper for that sandblasted look. With the legs in place I did a quick test whether the support platform stood steady on all four legs - it did. So the vinyl disks went on with E6000 glue, the whole thing was assembled and stood at its final place, but on top of a plastic sheet in case any glue seeped out.

Just in time for 2016 Pia has a great "new" bedside table. Add a handcrafted ceramic cup from Momma DOOD to complete the setup.