I've run across a few of these tables, with the same thick plywood with walnut veneer and black painted steel legs. They are similar enough (same thickness, same legs, same walnut veneer), that I wonder whether these came from a company? Or whether there were just a lot of horny guys in my area who all had basements and the same issue of some lost Popular Mechanics article. Has anyone else seen one of these?
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Old school d-I-y tables like IKEA. If you clean it up and adjust the legs not too close to the edge, it is not going to look like as you described it. I have similar ones made by Troy of Sunshade. I like them, they are unobtrusive, multi functional and a good antidote to a room full of "designed" items. And most of all, these are the few items I don't have to buy, they are usually tossed out by others for being too generic and non essential.
Those discarded chrome legs are awaiting for an unwanted thick slab of round white marble top (to make a Gae Aulenti or a Bellini look alike).
What are the measurements of your table? Just looking at the images you provided, it looks older, like early 1950s when everyone was doing skinny black metal legs. The underside looks like unfinished birch or maple. Is it a solid wood top or veneer? If it is veneer, is it book matched? The table could be part of a more affordable modular system similar in concept to the Planner Group by McCobb where the case goods can have its own legs or no legs but sitting on optional table like bases with different widths and heights.
I actually had two table tops, but only one set of legs, so I put the legs on the larger and nicer of the two tops, which is what I included a pic of. It is walnut veneer, not book matched but a single full size piece. The scale is a little strange in the picture, but it is coffee table size and height. It turned out pretty well, considering what it looked like to start with. I definitely think it looks 50's to me. I'll measure both tops and add that. Thanks for the lead; I'll check into McCobb; but it doesn't have a McCobb stamp on it, like the other McCobb Planner group piece (6-drawer bureau) I have. But maybe they only put the stamp on their case pieces?
The McCobb black metal legs of the Planner Group series are skinnier. I am just saying that your table(s) could be similar but made by another manufacturer from that period and as you mentioned, you see these a lot in your area...maybe keep an eye on case goods with no legs as well? Your table is definitely much better than the Steelcase (Florence Knoll look alike) with Formica walnut laminate tops with screw on legs.
(That's also how the Nelson slat bench started out, as bases for the Basic Cabinet Series case goods with no legs)
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