New Table Stand Cover

I’m on week three of sickness, having first caught my oldest daughter’s cold, then my youngest’s. The only thing that has brought any great relief is a nightly bath in steaming water, allowing me to breathe clearly for a bit while also relaxing…and escaping requests and questions and crying and whining.

While spending all this time in my tub, I’ve realized that my bathroom sanctuary could use a few things to make it really perfect. First, a rug over the cold tile, but that’ll have to wait until the cat is no longer with us. 😬 Second, I don’t always want to have the tray on that goes across the tub, but it would still be nice to have a place to set things. I can’t reach the floor when sitting in my freestanding tub, so I needed a little table stand for things like my phone or shampoo…or cough drops.

Fortunately, I knew I had just the thing. My aunt had given me a couple old plant stands that she didn’t want anymore, and I knew one of these would be the perfect size and height for the space. The only problem was that the top was a little worn and didn’t really go with our bathroom. So how could I make a new top for this stand?

What I came up with was super simple, super easy, and could work for really any size stand that has a top you don’t like. You could even do this for a bigger table or the top of a dresser or something! I used scrap wood and paint already on hand, but even if buying all new supplies, this project would only have cost me about $40, and that includes having a lot of wood and paint left over for future use. And, as always, I love that I was able to take something old and give it a second life.

Step 1: Paint/stain your stands legs. Before I did anything, I sprayed a few coats of metallic, chrome spray paint onto the legs. This was mostly because the chrome would go with my bathroom better than the original black. It was a quick and easy step, but it was extremely helpful in making the stand work in the space. If your stand has legs that are a little rough, repainting or staining them now is a good time and helps you get a better idea of what exactly you want for the top.

Step 2: Measure and plan. My stand’s top was a nearly perfect 8×8 square, and it was 1 inch thick. I chose to make the top be a rectangle rather than a square simply because I liked how it looked when I had the wood all spaced out. You could plan to make it a square again, but you’d have to add extra wood to the sides, unlike what I did. (Or, if your stand had a round top, you could turn it into a square or rectangle simply by using adhesive to the underside once you’ve got the cover made.)

Anyway, to fit my cover over this 8×8 square, I decided to make the main wood covering the top 8 1/8 inches x 8 1/8 inches. Then for 2 opposite sides, I would add 1×2 pieces to cover the cut ends and elongate the top to become a rectangle. These 1×2 ends would also cover the thickness of the original top. For the remaining 2 sides, I could simply paint the original sides and it would line up and look like part of the new top.

Side note: If you need to completely cover your original top, just add wood pieces to the sides also. And if your original top is thicker than 1 inch, obviously use wider wood pieces to cover it.

Step 3: Cut the pieces. I went through a LOT of scrap wood before deciding on what would look best. I had a few pieces of tongue-and-grove wall planks left over from an earlier project, and I liked the detail they would add. If you wanted to use plain wood, that’s fine too, but I love how this decorative wood looks!

Decisions made, I cut my scrap pieces to 8 1/8 inches long. Then I connected the tongue-and-groove sides and measured how 8 1/8 inches wide would look. I ended up chopping the “tongue” off the board on the left side and cutting the right board down along a line to make it all 8 1/8 inches wide. (If you’re using other wood, just make sure you cut a perfect size to cover your original top.)

Next, I took a piece of 1×2 and cut it into 2 pieces that would cover the cut ends of my main pieces. These were again 8 1/8 inches long.

Step 4: Assemble. I took these pieces back into my warm house and into my workshop to finish. I squeezed a little wood glue into the “grooves” of my pieces and then fit them together tightly.

Immediately, I flipped this main piece over and attached the 1x2s to the cut ends of the wood. I flipped it because that let me set the 1×2 so that the extra 1 inch was on the bottom side. I used a little wood glue again, but I also punched in a few short brad nails to really hold the ends on. Just be sure the pieces are tight together before nailing the ends in place.

Step 5: Sand and fill holes. I waited to sand until everything was assembled because I wanted all the ends and edges to line up and be smooth. By sanding everything assembled, I could be sure these spots would be sanded at the same angles (if that makes sense). Mostly, I sanded all the corners to make the edges smoother to the touch.

That done, I quickly wiped some wood filler into the brad nail holes.

All that done, I dusted off my sawdust and excess wood filler. I used a wet wipe to really make sure no dust was left behind in the indents of the decorative wood.

Step 6: Paint and seal. If your new cover has all 4 sides, you could paint it before sticking it on your stand. Because I had 2 sides of my original stand exposed, I wanted the cover in place so that I could paint it all at once. I carefully shoved the cover on over the original stand’s top, and it fit nicely and lined up with the underside of the original top just like I’d hoped it would.

My bathroom is mostly grey and white with whitewashed, light wood. For an accent color, we went with the same dark blue as the walls of our bedroom. To bring a little more of this accent color into the bathroom, I painted the table in the same dark blue (I believe it’s “Royal Navy” by Valspar.)

I only needed one coat on the wood of my cover, but I applied 2 coats to the metal sides from my original top. When this was all done, it looked like it was all meant to fit together!

After giving the paint time to dry, I sprayed on some clear gloss to help seal it all and add some protection. (This is optional, really, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.)

Step 7: Secure the cover in place. If you haven’t already, now would be the time to stick your cover on your stand. Again, I did this before painting because I needed to paint the sides of the original top anyway. My cover fit so snugly that I didn’t need to do anything else to secure it in place. (Translation: I got very lucky and it barely fit. 😂 Remember how I said the original top was a “nearly perfect” 8×8 square? Yeah…nearly. LOL)

If you gave yourself more wiggle room with your measurements, you might want to add some adhesive to the underside of your cover to make sure it stays put. Construction adhesive or even a decent glue would probably work, depending on your stand’s material.

So that’s it! There are many ways you could customize a table stand cover like this, but I really like how mine turned out. Now, to take a bath and really test it out!

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