Cinder blocks may bring to mind grad-student shelving, but we like them as ad hoc table bases. (If it's good enough for Axel Vervoodt, it's good enough for us.) Here are a dozen good examples of low-cost, industrial-chic tables made from nothing more than hardware-store wood planks and simple cinder or concrete blocks.
Above: A cinder block shelf in the San Francisco studio of Emma Dime.
Above: A DIY shelf via Liden Skapelse.
Above: A night table made from salvaged cinder blocks in a 400-square-foot Upper East Side apartment. Photograph by Alan Gastelum for Dwell.
Above: Cinder blocks made colorful in a table at the artist-designed Playland Motel, in Rockaway Beach, New York.
Above: A DIY plant stand in the New York City apartment of The Sill founder Eliza Blank, photographed by Laura Dart for Kinfolk. Read The Sill's 10 Tips for Office Plants on Gardenista.
Above: A narrow DIY desk with a cinder block base, via The Merry Thought.
Above: A simple cinder block table in the Brooklyn loft of Hannah Metz, via The Selby.
Above: A cinder block bedside table, via Inside Inside.
Above: A simple outdoor table by midcentury modern architect Marcel Breuer made from a rectangular slab of stone propped on a base of mortared concrete blocks. Photograph via The Improvised LIfe.
Above: My own coffee table in Mill Valley, California, made from a walnut drafting-table top and four concrete blocks.
Above: A coffee table made from eight stacked concrete blocks. Photograph via Kikette.
Above: Legendary designer and antiques dealer Axel Vervoordt created an informal coffee table with concrete blocks and a slab of wood in this Belgian interior.
For more cinder block ideas and inspiration, see DIY: Concrete Block Planters and A Low-Cost Concrete-Block Kitchen for Serious Cooks.
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