How I made my Shovel Table.

My train of thought with this was that I needed a table to go with the rest of my furniture and by this time people had found out where the local skips where and they were emptied with just these pallets at the side, I could see the potential in them and so took about three trying to get the same shade, width and length of wood.

 First I decided to make a coffee table out of pallets so I started making it but it look so shabby and horrible looked like a piece of junk literally, so had a paddy..Scrapped it.

 After walking around in circles and racking my brain I wanted something visually aesthetic and interesting so when I pulled them apart, the blocks that held them together had a lot to look and think about why=it the different distributers on, random nails picking out and the age markings all around them. I decided these would be the top of the table the bit where everyone nosies and looks at the most. Unfortunately I only had a few of these blocks and kept going daily but there was none that were the same or as good, so I only had nine blocks. I looked at it and it just looked too small to hold a brew never mind the plant and picture frame beside it so I decided to frame it with about two or three layers of wood around each side to make the base a little wider.

The legs were so annoying! I wanted to use these pool cues I got from a skip and have them all coming into a hole in the middle, so I sanded the cues down to give the unfinished effect that the pallet wood had. Then me a Bill just winged it, screwing holes at different angles all over the place and then this guy came in and said ‘doesn’t matter if is wonky if it had three legs like the milk maids stools’ I asked the smartass to explain himself, ‘Made originally for milk maids because they were unbalanced on the farm floor and three legs is best to find balance on the bumpiest of surfaces’. So then, thanks to the lovely smartass, we tried it with three legs but then I didn’t like the look of the pool cues against the pallet wood, just didn’t look right, too different. So I just decided to use more pallet wood along the sides, screwing them in with an electric drill, I wanted to use like them pin screws, like nails, where they look quite old fashioned and fragile, turns out they were fragile for this so I could only use screws.

So I always had the ideas of using old shovels for the drawers and found a small and big vintage Bulldog shovel (I didn’t notice this until I had cut it up though). I made little pallet shelves for the to just sit on so you could take them out and see them, I didn’t have much work for the small one it just slipped off the handle but the Bulldog one I needed to cut through the steel surrounding (bearing in mind I did weights at the gym the day before and couldn’t even change the gear in my car I was aching that much) so Bill and I took it in turns making sure Bill had more turns. It took a lot of swapping between us; I think I almost cried an all. But when I did that then, I had the mammoth task of sanding the cut off bit down so it was a little safer. So we placed them in and it was starting to take shape.

At that point I thought I was done but it looked a little sad and boring and I had spare parts from the shovel and spade so decorated the front with the handles. I used an electric drill to hold them all in place. I wanted you to see the Bulldog trademarking’s and the handle stood up, but we found engravings and wanted to show them off too so put them where you would see them most, from the top. I brassed the Bulldog sign up with something that looked a lot like a brillo pad and some oil and WALA. It’s finished. I would have finished it off with a glass topper to keep you from the splinters but I cannot afford anything! Can’t even afford an acrylic one but if I had the funds…I would have put a nice finish on it.

I didn’t think I would like it but it has grown on me and when I photographed it, it reminded me of a little Dada’ism, just them structure and trademarks, the collage of different materials. I love this table and would have it in my…garage. It’s just not that housey to me.