The glass coffee table is a great focal point for any room. It can take the shape of anything because all you're basically doing is putting a thick glass pane over a sturdy base and viola you have a nice looking coffee table. One of the designs I've made in the past gets a lot of attention though because it is so particularly unique to the area I come from.

I used to have a glass coffee table that I made out of an antique lobster trap and everyone seems to comment on it whenever they come into my house so I figured I would write this article here and let you know what I did to build it.

The lobster trap coffee table is relatively easy to build. I grew up in New England so there were a lot of stores out there that sold old nautical equipment. You can find anchors, steering wheels, decals, oars, fishing nets, all sorts of antique materials that will really make your room stand out if you're going for that nautical theme.

Anyway, I came across this old wooden lobster trap one day. It was pretty beaten up as it had once been used deep under the sea to catch lobsters for food. Some of the pieces inside of it were broken and the netting was a little bit torn up. In case you didn't know, a lobster trap has a wood paneled frame and inside that frame are two separate netting compartments. The net is designed so that the lobster will crawl in to get at the bait but never be able to get out. If you've ever seen the show Deadliest Catch on the Discovery channel you have seen the advanced version of these things. In the old days of lobster catching you would have one trap for maybe two or three lobsters, now the scale has gotten much bigger.

So I fixed up the lobster trap by repairing some of the broken bits and then I went to my local hardware store and asked them to cut out a thick glass pane for me. The lobster trap is a rectangular box so I just measured the top of it and made the glass to those measurements. Once I got the glass I put it on top of the trap and viola: instant coffee table.



Source by Matthew Proctor