Hairpin legs are a great way to add some style and function to a project. In this Instructable I'm going to build a maple slab table with a drop drawer, using these mid-century modern looking legs. What's great about this is how simple the concept is - a piece of wood on top, a box underneath for a drawer and then the legs which gets screwed down.

Step 1: Planing

So first of all, I got this beautiful maple slab and I immediately though this would make the perfect table top. It's a little spalted and has so much variation in the grain, I just think it's beautiful.

To got with this, I figured hair pin legs would be perfect!

Of course the wood is not exactly flat, so I'm wedging it to plane it. I'm starting with the scrub plane which cuts out large amounts of material and creates divets, and then I'm also going to use the low angle jack plane to smooth it out.

This was a really challenging wood to plane, because the grain is going in every direction, so it took some time to get flat. And because I'm using the scrub plane and because the grain goes in every direction, I can also plane from every direction too and switch positions.

Planing is a lot of work but it's also a lot of fun work that's really relaxing.

So I'm working towards getting one side flat, so I can bring it out to my thickness planer, and flatten the other side from there.

Step 2: Cutting & Sanding

But first, I want to clean up the edges, so I'm squaring up the slab and cleaning it up with a circular saw, and then I can run the straight side against the fence on the table saw.

And at this point, I did a whole lot of planing, over and over and over until it was flat.

I also put on some epoxy to fill in any voids. And once that was dried I sanded, a lot.

Step 3: Drop Drawer

I'm going for a drawer underneath, and I want to look like it's floating. For the drawer I'm using MDF, so cutting that up to pieces. I basically need two boxes - one (the drawer) that goes inside the other (the case).

I've got all the pieces here, and it's pretty much a box within a box, cause of the drawer. So really simple construction, just glue and the nail gun, which I really like when you don't want to mess around to much. And of course it's important to get these nice and square.

Step 4: Finishing

In terms of paint I'm going with black chalk paint, because I really like that matte color, and I thought it would look nice.

For the slab, I'm going with a first coat of shellac all sides, and then I did polyurethane on top of that.

Step 5: Assembly

Sometimes I really like these kind of projects where each part is quite simple, and it's just a matter of putting it all together. To attach the drawer to the slab I'm just using small brackets. And when it comes to the hair pin legs, you just drill holes and screw them down, very simple.

Step 6: Leather Pull

Now for the drawer, I need some kind of pull, and I decided to go with leather. I used strip of veg tanned leather that I'm folding over, and also thinning make it less thick around the fold. To make the leather a touch darker I'm adding some of my mineral wax polish. I also picked up a nice brass bolt, and then I'm just securing it to the drawer with a nut on the other side.

Step 7: Waxing

To make sure the drawer runs smoothly in and out, I'm also applying some of the mineral oil polish on the bottom, and that makes a big difference. To make the top extra smooth I'm putting on some tung oil wax polish there.