Antique Dough Bowl Turned Coffee Table

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Growing up, my parents kept an old dough bowl like this on their dining room table.  It was smaller, of course, but I always thought it was beautiful.  I loved the rustic, hand-carved quality that it had.  You could see where someone had carefully carved it, each stroke different than the last.

That bowl belonged to my great, great-grandmother and it was one of my first introductions to rustic antiques.  I said that one day, I wanted to own one like it.

A couple of months ago, I came across this five foot dough bowl at Cline’s Antiques in Charlotte.  I immediately fell in love with it, though I didn’t consider what one does with a five foot long wooden bowl.

After getting it home, I knew it was impractical and I was going to have to re-purpose it to keep it.  We have a small house and everything needs a function.

I decided to turn it into a coffee table during Round 3 of Creating with the Stars and I am so excited to share the tutorial with you guys!

dough bowl materials

Dough bowls come in all shapes and sizes, but for this project, you want to make sure it has a flat rim around the bowl part.  Some are just a bowl without the extra trim and that would make attaching the legs very difficult.

Any legs that you like the look of will work.  I’ve been wanting to use some mid-century hairpin legs for a while and thought they would be perfect for this project!  I found ours on eBay and they aren’t incredibly cheap ($50 for a set of 4), but they’re solid steel and add a great industrial quality to the table.

Alright, let’s make a table!

Step 1: Test Legs

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When we went to attach the legs to the bowl, we realized that even though our rim is fairly flat, these are hand-carved and it wasn’t exact.

So, we sketched around where we wanted the leg to go.

Yours may be flat and you wouldn’t have this issue, but you want the legs to rest completely against the bowl so that the table will be level.

Step 2: Chisel, if Necessary

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Since ours was not completely flat, we chiseled out a level section where we had sketched.  Now, our legs will rest perfectly against the bowl!

Step 2: Attach Legs

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We got all of the legs attached, then we flipped her over and she was ready for a top!

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(I realize the table does not look level here, but it’s the cart it’s sitting on.)

Step 4: Measure Plexi-glass

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We had planned to use real glass at first, and then realized that with a large dog who loves to run around the house, this was a safer option and it doesn’t look any different once it’s cut and on the table.

We got this large sheet at Home Depot.  It’s much thicker than your regular plexi-glass, which makes it more stable.

Place it on the table and measure where it needs to be cut.  We decided to give ours an inch overhang all the way around because again, hand-carved dough bowls don’t have an exactly straight edge.

Step 5: Cut Plexi-glass

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We used a jigsaw to carefully cut on the lines we had drawn.  Make sure to use a fine tooth blade.

Step 6: Sand Edges

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We went slow with cutting the plexi-glass, so we got a really straight line.  We lightly sanded the edges with 400 grit paper to make sure we had a really smooth line.

Step 7: Place your Glass!

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We chose not to permanently attach the plexi-glass so that we could remove it and use the bowl for things if we wanted.

But with it styled, it is weighted down and won’t move.

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The best part about this project is that the old quality is still preserved and we now have a functional display piece out of a piece of history.

This photograph was taken at a friend’s house because we couldn’t share anything during the contest that would give away it was our home.  I would love to live here, though!

We now have it and the Moroccan Wedding Blanket in our living room at home and we love it.  I’ll share a living room refresh picture soon.

Happy table making!

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31 Comments

You have no idea how much I love this table! I’m a huge fan of dough bowls, too and you completely made it usable and contemporary!

Angela @ Number Fifty-Three

I drool over that giant dough bowl and I may just have to head to Cline’s Antiques one day soon 🙂 Y’all did a fantastic job on this! I used that plexiglass on my pallet desk too and I love it! It’s just as good a regular glass!

Thank you Bethany! You seriously have to go to Cline’s!!! Maybe we need to plan a Charlotte (and Greenville) blogger meet up and go!

Hi! I have a bowl that I’ve wantedto do this with for a long time!! Like a console table. Would you mind sharing where you bought the legs for yours? I absolutely love it!!

Ileana carlile

Good job on you’re dough bowl table, it looks terrific! I think by adding the hairpin legs you have created a crossover piece from rustic to mid-century modern. Very clever!! Have you thought about putting something in the bowl such as coffee beans? Maybe you have one or 2 cups and saucers handed down from your mom or grandmother to go with them? They would add a ‘multi-era’ aroma to the room! ;~} Thank you for sharing your table!

Hi Megan! I think they were around 16″? We don’t have the table anymore sadly, but I remember we just searched standard coffee table height and bought accordingly 🙂 We found ours on eBay!