This Inventive DIY Creates A Coffee Table On A Dollar Tree Budget, But Is It A Good Idea?

Having a coffee table doesn't just complete the aesthetic look of your living room, but it often serves important functions. It's a place for a cup of coffee (or tea or wine), the TV remote, magazines, and even a coffee table book. If it's a unique furniture piece, your coffee table can be a perfect focal point or conversation starter. Ideally, it should showcase your style, and when a creative do-it-yourselfer couldn't find one that truly reflected her style, she decided to make one, especially since what she wanted was something that really did "reflect" everything: She wanted a mirrored coffee table, and if you want one, too, her inventive DIY shows how to create that coffee table on a Dollar Tree budget. But is it a good idea? We explored how to make it, alternatives, and what the possible downsides could be.

If you tried TikTok's hula hoop hack to create a gorgeous round shelf stand, a project that screwed two wood planks inside a hula hoop, you have the skills to create this. The coffee table DIY demonstrated by Yoduvh Essentials used materials mostly sourced from a Dollar Tree store or that she had on hand, like her hot glue gun. Because you would be making it yourself, you have many options to customize it. The YouTuber did not mention, however, that one of the 15 ways to make the perfect DIY coffee table is to embed NFC (Near Field Communication) tags (K Lakey has 10 for $7.96), which let you connect just about anything to the tag and do things like, oh, perhaps turn on a disco ball, which would go very nicely with this blingy coffee table made from hula hoops and mirrors!

To create the inventive coffee table, the YouTuber screwed one hula hoop to the bottom and another to the top of five equal lengths of wood that were evenly spaced along the hoop. She doesn't describe the wood, but it appears to be approximately half an inch thick by two inches wide, cut slightly shorter than the finished height you want your coffee table to be. She then screwed five wooden Dollar Tree rounds into each wood plank and spray-painted the entire setup. When it was dry, she began decorating it by gluing on vinyl shiny patterned placemats in the same silver color as her paint and embellishments cut from mirror tiles. The coffee table's top was a mirror that was slightly bigger than the hula hoop. She had other embellishments and variations, including adding other mirrors to the sides.

If that coffee table doesn't reflect your style, you could easily DIY a trendy coffee table with a Home Depot wood round and planter. It's customized by swapping out planters, but might not have the oh-look-shiny appeal of the mirrored coffee table. For a non-hoop version coffee table, check out the 20-inch by 40-inch one by Dazzling Designs by Denise, who used plywood and mirrors cut to size by the retailers. She put it together mostly with construction adhesive, wood glue, finishing nails, and black acrylic paint. She added Magic Sliders, small discs to allow furniture to move easily without scratching floors (this one is a package of four one-and-a-half-inch self-adhesive sliders for $8.83). Add additional bling with rectangular crystals like Allstarco 22x7mm crystal clear baguette-shaped flat-back acrylic rhinestone plastic gems. They aren't self-adhesive; a good glue for attaching rhinestones to most surfaces is Supertite Fusion Tack Multi-Purpose Glue, available for $9.99 for a 100 ml. bottle.

Mirrored coffee tables are dazzling, and no one can argue with their sparkly bling rating, but is there something about the glitzy tables that dulls their appeal, or do they really shine? On the negative side, it seems fairly obvious: Mirrors are breakable. If you live with unruly pets, rambunctious children, clumsy spouses, or throw a lot of wild parties, you may need to give careful consideration to having big mirrors low to the ground taking up central real estate in a prime region of your home. They may work well, however, if much of the activity happens in a family room or other space, and the coffee table is relegated to a more formal, less-used area. The other detriment is that it would be difficult to keep a mirrored coffee table smudge-free. And while you might discover the simple method that makes removing unsightly smudge marks from glass easier than ever (hint: it involves microfiber), there still could be a lot of maintenance with that much glass and mirror surface.

On a brighter note, there is a brighter note — literally — to having mirrors in any space. Because mirrors reflect light, this kind of coffee table would make your living room appear light and bright even on a gloomy day, especially if it's placed so that it reflects light from windows or other sources. Also, mirrors generally make living areas look more expansive. When considering how to use mirrors to make your small space look bigger, experts and others will often think of mirrors on walls, but using mirrors on a coffee table can achieve at least some of the effect without having to mount one or more mirrors on a wall.