Introduction: Lego & Wood Bedside Table

About: I hope to help people with the things I make.

I am leaving for college in a month and after shopping for dorm room items I realized I would much rather build one! After having seen some of the amazing recent 'ibles for legos I was really wanting to do something with them so I thought I'd give this a shot. Fortunately my dad saved all his legos from the 70's (the clock was also his as a kid) and as a child I was blessed with large tubs of the standard white and red pieces which were perfect for this. This is a fun, simple project and only took ~2 hours!

The table is actually much sturdier than I would have imagined. Obviously there is going to be a little wiggle without extensive drilling or support beams, but I sat on it and it held! Have fun. :)

Step 1: Materials

This project has two parts:
LEGOS - Lots and lots. I recommend two colors for the best designs. You will also need 8 connector rods and pieces that can take these connectors (third picture).
Wood - Any will do, I just had these two pieces lying around.

Tools:
Drill
Measuring Tape

Step 2: Building the Legs

Take one of your shelf pieces and lay it out on the ground. On the top place an outline for where you want the legs of your table to be. I used two, close to opposite ends. In the picture you can see mine has a little 'L' shape to give it some extra stability, this is highly recommended. Add layers to this base outline until you reach your desired height. You can alternate colors and slowly shift them over with each layer to obtain a similar pattern to mine. Experiment!

Repeat the steps above and make another with a mirrored 'L' shape to go on the other side. Keep the pattern the same if possible.

Repeat this entire step for each layer of shelves you plan on using.

Step 3: Building Supports

Now we will build a support piece for the two legs. Place the legs onto the shelf approximately where you want them. Now take legos and lay out a rectangle that runs along the line of the legs and spans the gap between them. Make this ~3 layers of legos thick and attach to the top of the legs.

Repeat for each set of legs.

Step 4: Adding Connectors

Now take the lego connectors and insert them into the pieces that can take them. Place one of these near each corner of the support and leg structures you have built. Measure the distance between these connectors once mounted. It will be helpful if you make a drawing of the rectangular dimensions you just took.

Step 5: Drilling

Now it's time to drill small holes in one side of each shelf. First you will need to find a drill bit the same size as the lego connectors. Next you need to plot small points on the bottom of each shelf where you will drill. Using your drawing of the measurements for the connectors you can plot four small dots on the back of the shelf that correspond to the connectors. You can now drill these dots. I didn't drill completely through my boards to keep the front looking nice, but if you want you could drill all the way through and stick a longer connector completely through to attach to the bottom of the legs for the next layer.

Step 6: Mounting

Take the shelves and place them onto the connectors so that the protruding part of the connectors stick up into the drilled holes. Do this for each layer and then stack them on one anther. Congratulations, you have finished! Now go put it wherever you'll use it.

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