Unique Legs for a Bar or Table

Swing Set Poles

• Look through salvage yards, online classifieds or ask friends and neighbors for an old metal swing set. The metal poles from swing sets are often painted with lettering, colorful designs or barber pole-type spirals. Additionally, the poles from an old swing set are likely to have fading, weathering and rusty areas, all of which will add interest and character to your table or bar.

Mannequin Limbs

• Legs hold up our bodies, so why not a table? Dressed in stockings or left nude, mannequin legs make fun, funky table legs and are sure to get your guests talking. Keep them a natural skin color or paint them in a bold hue. Scour resale shops and online classifieds for mannequin parts or ask clothing stores for their cast-offs.

Logs or Branches

• While cut, sanded and stained wood is a common table material, rough-hewn logs and branches are an unexpected element that brings the outdoors in. Thicker logs with smooth, level ends are sturdy and fairly easy to work with, while branched-out sections from a tree offer more detail and interest.

Books, Blocks and Balls

• Although it's human nature to gravitate toward long, lean items when coming up with table leg ideas, don't rule out stacking smaller items. Books, colorful children's blocks and CD jewel cases can be stacked and glued until they're just about any height you like. Even round items such as tennis balls or faux apples can be stacked by drilling a hole through their middles and running a sturdy pole through the holes.

Four-leg Alternatives

• It's also human nature to want to use four table legs, neatly placing one at each corner. If you break out of this rut you can create a table that's really different and unexpected. For example, consider grouping 10 or 20 pool cues or broom sticks under the tabletop at the middle, like a pedestal. You can use birdbaths and tall garden urns as pedestals also. Or, use cast-off cabinet doors or leftover pieces of granite to hold up a tabletop by placing one at each narrow end of the table.