Introduction: Minecraft Coffee Table

About: Building things to pass the time and sharing the good ones with others.

How to make a quick and easy coffee table that looks a lot like a minecraft workbench (crafting table). 
Final Dimensions: 
48.5" square by 16.75" in height. 

Materials needed: 
3 x 2x4s
1 x 2x10
2 pieces of  8' trim
1 sheet of plywood. 
16 pieces of 12x12" birchwood laminate
1 screw gun with two batteries.
1 box of screws
1 box of trim nails 
6 colors of Acrylic Paint and paint brushes. 
Red Mohagany Stain and application rags. 
Polyurethane
1 roller 

Step 1: Design Document

Pretty self explanatory. Used a spreadsheet program to plan out how each piece would be painted. 
Each 1 of the 16 sheets was determined to have a perfect square of a pre-assigned color palate  In order to keep it straight, I used a spreadsheet for the color assignments. My adorable minion helped to draw out and pattern. 

Step 2: Box Build

Use the 2 x 4s and the plywood to make the box table top. 
You'll need screws and a speed square. 
I also recommend sinking your screw holes ot make it nice looking. 
Not pictured, with a table of this size (48" square, you'll be wanting to put in a middle cross piece for strength). 

Each leg was sunk with 3 screws on the face and a second set of screws on the edge.

Step 3: Paint!

Seriously. This was a lot of painting. It helped to mix the acrylic paint for the shade needed and then paint ALL of those numbers. Matching these paints is not the easiest, so it made a lot of sense to paint each corresponding number on each sheet to make the pattern colors correct the first time. (ALSO, after drying, take the sheet and test your polyurethane and make sure it doesn't solublize the dried acrylic before you glue your pieces into the final build). 

Step 4: Stain and Polyurethane

I stained the legs and the trim with the red mohagany stain. It is very covering and matched my color palatte.
Next:   
Glue. Lots of glue. 
Each piece needed to be placed appropriately. I used nails to square in the first corner and then slowly glued and put in each piece like a puzzle. Once done, you weight everything down with boards and heavy block. (This takes about a day). 

Let the glue dry and then get your stained trim out. Glue that on and apply trim nails to make sure it will stay right where you'd like it to stay. 

After your glue is dry, get out the polyurethane. I used 4-6 coats and filled in all the cracks and crannies. It was a fun table to build and immediately functional.