Patio Table: In a Pinch

Fortune smiles on us once in a while, and for us, it was last year when our friends Jeff & Helen gave us a beautiful patio table set. For FREE!! Being that it was late in the summer, AND we didn't really have our back patio ready for such a thing, we stored it. Sometime between then and now, we managed to lose the connector for the legs. Doh!

Before I get into the DIY aspect, I wanna mention that my friends Jeff & Helen are probably a couple of the neatest people I know. My hubby and I have had the pleasure of being in a couple of their horror shorts and some of their photo shoots.

Check out heLENS photography to see her work.
Or here to see us as models. LOL!!!

Okay, back to DIY awesomeness.
In my blog tag-line I say, "the sometimes disasterous DIY"... well this would qualify.
Don't ever think that metal strapping will work for torsion related DIY. It doesn't. Its funny... but it doesn't.

So I went to plan B.
Plumbing tubes!!
First, I cut it to the length I needed.

Then I carefully measured the distance between the bolt-holes in the legs. In this case 5.5 inches.
I marked the PVC and drilled 1/4" holes - which is the exact size of the hex bolts I had.

Then i used my hex bolts and assembled the legs. EASY-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

A quick coat (or 3 of green paint)... I also took this opportunity to touch up the small amount of rust coming through on the legs.

While the paint dried, I added these vinyl bumpers so that the metal-to-glass connections would not be unbuffered.

I think it turned out brilliantly. In fact, I don't think most people will even ever notice it, nor know that it wasn't original to the table.

Ta-Da!! Isn't it a lovely set? I love the wood on the umbrella.