Monday, August 23, 2010

Lack Scrabble table


Materials: Lack coffee table

Description: I had read guides on how to do this on a few websites, but the laminate surface of the Lack table made a mess of their recommendations. Fortunately my brother is a tile and granite mason.

Here's what you'll need:
1. Lack coffee table
2. 1000 Scrabble tiles
3. Tile adhesive (bucket)
4. Notched trowel
5. Urethane
6. Paint brush (minimum 4")
7. Paint thinner
8. Sandpaper (rough grit)
9. Glass table top
10. Little plastic glass grips
11. Wet cloth
12. Patience

Whatever you do, do not trick yourself into thinking that wood glue will work - this is a Lack table. Swedish scientists worked for years to ensure that hardly anything will stick to the laminate surface. You just don't mess with Swedish scientists.


Here's how it works:
1. Order 1000 Scrabble tiles off eBay
2. Wait for them to arrive
3. Sand the laminate in the areas you wish to apply Scrabble tiles
4. Use the notch trowel to apply tile adhesive to a small area of table
5. Apply tiles
6. Continue until complete, allow to dry
7. Use the paint brush to apply 2 coats of urethane over the tiles and un-tiled surface, working to fill all the cracks, and do your best to keep the brush strokes long and all in the same direction
8. Use the wet cloth to clean up all the urethane that runs down the sides
9. Use the paint thinner to get the urethane out of the brush, especially if you ever want to use the brush again
10. Put the little plastic glass grips on the corners of the table
11. Put on the glass top
12. Clean up yer goldarn mess
13. Enjoy your new coffee table, which now weighs a metric tonne
14. Get your feet off the table

~ Dan, Toronto

16 comments:

  1. Nice. A global view of the table would have been nice though.

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  2. Did you go out of your way to make an words when you laid them out?

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  3. Absolutely gorgeous! Agreed though, I'd love to see a global view of the table.

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  4. <14. Get your feet off the table>

    LOL!

    What a nifty idea!

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  5. Fab idea - if the tiles were ramdomly placed, I hope you havent accidentally got any rude words included!

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  6. Another vote for a global view!

    This is awesome... my wife proposed to me using scrabble tiles! Now I've got all kinds of ideas brewing in my head (especially since we, of course, kept the very tiles she proposed to me with)!

    Thanks!

    - Nikki

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  7. It looks great! I also love the descriptions. =)

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  8. It is not just a very nice idea, it is also a very humory discription. Thanks.

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  9. Terrible pictures and lackluster instructions.

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  10. did you spell out any particular words while you were setting this up? Your names?

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  11. probably cheaper to order your Scrabble tiles directly through Hasbro... consistent sized tiles and much cheaper than eBay.... US=6.50(tiles+racks) CAN=5.50(tiles only)

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  12. I have to agree better (picture step by step)instructions as well as a global view would have been great.

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  13. I love this idea!!!

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  14. I loved this idea and created my own tutorial based on this
    http://robert-guenther.com/blog/ikea-hack-lack-scrabble-tisch/
    (it's in german though)

    full credit goes to the original author :)

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  15. Very interesting post. I really enjoyed reading it about Scrabble.

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