Backyard Reno | Stone and Glass-Top Patio Table
I decided life would not be worth living without a “cocktail” area in my backyard. Since I am so lucky to have a substantial backyard, I can pretty much do whatever I want here without many size limitations. On the flipside, it has become a multi-year project. But in steady-eddie-style I do a few big projects each year, slowly working my way towards the back of the yard – creating my little slice of heaven in the city, bit by bit. Year 1: patio, dining area and garden plots, year 2: sods and flower beds. This year: a second seating area, named “The Cocktail Area” which provides me with a great excuse to drink cocktails at least a few times a week.
By: Liesbeth
Total Time Required: 2 hours
Project Costs:
$63 for the paver stones ($1.75 a piece at Home Depot)
$8.99 for a caulk tube of landscape and paver adhesive (ideally clear-drying silicone) at Home Depot
glass table top: FREE (something I have had for almost 20 years! Don’t you love upcycling?). If you need to purchase the table top, you need to budget a few hundred dollars extra. A new table top of the size, thickness and finish I used would be around $500. Just make sure you do this with a very thick table top only (minimum 1/2 inch) and when using a square top, make sure it is beveled and has rounded edges for safety. When using glass for a DIY project like this, you cannot just use any kind of glass.
Materials and Tools Required:
– heavy-duty work gloves to protect your manicure (I bite my nails so went “commando” – ps: not recomended).
– level
– muscles (these stones are heavy!)
– measuring tape
Tutorial:
The first part is the trickiest. Before going to the store to pick up stones, plan your table in detail. Is it a high, bar-style table (like mine), a regular dining table or a lower, coffee-table style? Take reference for height from one of your existing tables or, if it is a new height, go to any website that sells furniture and check the standard table height in the product information. Then go to the store to get your stones and get creative on the spot. There will be different stones available and you will have to do some try-outs to find what works, what you like and what exact stone configuration will be best. The photo below is taken at Home Depot where I fiddled around a bit to get a configuration I liked.
I then measured it and from there calculated how many stones I needed. For these particular stones I needed 18 stones per leg for a total of 36 stones.
Back home I measured exactly where to put the stone legs of my table on my patio and clearly marked it with chalk on my patio stones. Obviously, how and where you do that is up to you and depends on the size of your patio and the table you are creating. Make sure you keep the posts/legs far enough apart to create a stable table but enough on the inside to not have knees banging into it when seated (very painful and guaranteed to ruin your fancy cocktail moment). Easiest way to check is to get you to sit down on the chairs you are going to use and mark it all down. I know..sounds like a lot of work but this is a permanent table so you want to get it right.
The last part is fairly easy and that’s building your actual legs/posts. I used clear-dry silicone suitable for stones as recommended by my friendly Home Depot guy. He was right in that you don’t even need that much and I was able to complete my project with one tube of the stuff. Put a bit of the silicone on each stone as you are building. No need for waiting in between, you can build the complete post without stops for dry-time.
I did wait for 24 hours before putting my glass top on just to give the posts time to dry and settle a bit before adding even more weight. I also added silicone between the glass table top and the posts to ensure the top was firmly in place and would never move (dangerous!).
May Tai at my table anyone?
themotherboards 