Lucas Odima carved Martina’s table legs in rich mahogany, giving her handmade pieces with bold character and the striking detail she hoped for. What's your wish? →
View material & custom-made details
This Custom Mahogany Table Legs With Skull Carving project shows how Lucas Odima turned a bold furniture idea into a finished set of carved legs for a self-built living room table. It is a useful example for anyone exploring custom wood table legs with sculptural details, especially when standard furniture parts do not match the look they want.
- Request: The project called for four mahogany table legs with a turned shape and a skull motif carved on one side of each leg, sized for a living room table rather than an off-the-shelf furniture replacement.
- Final result: The finished set included four solid wooden legs with the skull placed in the middle section, where it became the main visual feature without overwhelming the rest of the design.
- Design details: Each leg began from stock around 10 x 10 cm and was shaped down to about 9 x 9 cm after turning, with a rounded lower section, a recessed area above and below the skull to make the carving stand out, and updated facial details for a clearer skull expression.
- Fit and use: The legs were made at around 50 cm height, with a little extra length left at the top to give more room for joining them securely to the tabletop during assembly.
- Process: Progress photos documented the wood selection, shaping, sample stage, carving work and final finishing, and the completed piece received very positive feedback after delivery.
Every unique piece tells a story. What’s yours?
This design was custom-made exclusively for Martina. Let it inspire you: customize this design to fit your vision or start with a completely new idea. You chat directly with our artisans, and we handle the secure process.
A request by Martina from Germany, Germany
I plan to build a living room table myself and possibly need four table legs, which should be turned and in the middle of the table leg there should be a skull.
The dimensions would be 50 cm high and about 10 x 10 cm thick.
Can you tell me what those four table legs would cost me?
The Journey of Creating Custom Mahogany Table Legs With Skull Carving
Negotiation & Planning
Hello Martina,
I am happy to provide an offer for your idea. I will use Mahogany wood to create the table legs. I will use 7 ft of mahogany wood to get the 4 table legs. The wood will 10cm2 thick as you have indicated. Below is a break down of the price of material and labor I will indicate.
7 ft of Mahogany wood @ksh 300= Ksh 2,100
Lathing the wood =Ksh 300
Labour Charge of preparing the wood and creating the carvings = Ksh 2,300
Please clarify to me if you want a skull carving on only one side of each table leg?
Regards
Lucas
Martina 19 Jul 2018 8:50 pm
Yes, only on one side of each leg of the table.
Is the total price at just under 74 €? Do I understand that correctly?
Great, I look forward to starting to bring your idea to life and yes the price is just under € 74.
Regards,
Lucas
Crafting Process
How to make a Custom Mahogany Table Legs With Skull Carving – work in progress
Hi Martina, Apologies for the late response. I will be getting the materials that I need this week and start the work. On the next update, I will be sending you photos and videos of the progress.
Lucas
Many Thanks
Hi Martina,
I had a bit of a situation at my workshop but I have since sorted things out. I have already gotten the material I will be using, I've attached photos as well.
I will start working on the table legs tomorrow on Monday. Your project is the main priority for this week, so I am hoping to finish it soon.
Lucas
20 Aug 2018 12:54 pm: Martina
Hello Lukas ,
Is it possible to place the skull in the middle of the table leg?
If you haven't started yet.
Lg Martina
Hello Martina,
Yes it is possible to put the skull in the middle of the table leg. Could you also let me know the height for the skull (that is the distance from the top of the skull to the bottom of the skull) that you would like. Thanks.
Lucas
25 Aug 2018 7:34 pm: Martina
Hi Lucas,
12-13cm
Thank you
Hello Martina,
I am working with a colleague of mine who is a sculptor to create a perfect skull. We met yesterday to plan out how the design will be. I will update you as soon as the first sample is ready.
Lucas
05 Sep 2018 3:33 pm: Martina
Hi Lukas I expected to have the product by October 1.
Hi Martina,
I will try my best to have it complete by next week, I have attached photos of the sample. This is before the skull is done. What do you think of the bottom part that has already been done?
The wood we bought was 10x10 but I realized after curving the round shape it comes to a width of 9cm × 9cm. Can this still work for you?
Regards
Lucas
12 Sep 2018 2:47 pm: Martina
Yeah, that's all right. The lower part looks very nice too.
I hope this works until the beginning of October
Hi Martina,
We have began the curving, hope you like this sample, the edges of the skull will be curved so that only the skull shape appears on that section. We will be finished with the curving in 4 working days.
Regards
Lucas
22 Sep 2018 9:38 am: Martina
Very good 👍
I'm looking forward to it
Hi Martina,
Please see the progress, I'd like to get some clarification. These are below..
1. On the part above the skull would you like it to be square as it is or circular as it is below the skull ?
2. Then above the skull there is some space which we can remove and have only the skull protruding from that one side of the wood or we can leave it as it, which can work best for you?
3. The height of the wood is a few inches longer than 50 cm. I have done this so that you will have good space to join the leg to the table. Is this okay?
This information will greatly help. If there are no changes I am just left with finishing and we will be done.
Regards
Lucas
25 Sep 2018 11:09 am: Martina
Hello Lukas ....
the legs I like so far quite well .
We can leave the skull like this but I would like to have a straight (recessed) surface above the skull about 1-2 cm. So that the skull comes out better.
Then I think it's perfect.
Hi Martina,
This is possible, I can remove the same space that I removed below the skull in a straight line above the skull so that the skull stands out nicely, is this okay?
Regards
Lucas
27 Sep 2018 10:48 am: Martina
Yes
30 Sep 2018 12:41 pm: Martina
Hello, Lucas Odima,
I had a conversation with my client.
Is it possible to move the nose of the skull a little bit inwards so to carve out a small cave so that it resembles a skull even more ...?
Hi Martina,
I had already started with the final finishing for the table legs, it might be hard to go back to the curving stage again but I assure you, the skull came out nicely and I just need a day for the final finishing and the table legs will be ready. I've attached photos of how it looks now.
Regards
Lucas
02 Oct 2018 8:45 pm: Martina
Please move the nose a little to the inside and the eyes a little bigger. This is what it should look like 💀
Hi Martina,
Okay, this is possible but this will be changing the original design of the skull and taking it back to my colleague who was doing the curving then we redo the finishing at the skull again, this might cost me around 8 Euros. If that can be added to the price I quoted at the beginning then I can have it ready by tomorrow. I have attached a picture with the changes in pencil. Please advise on the way forward.
Regards
Lucas
05 Oct 2018 7:54 am: Martina
Yeah, I think that's how the skull's gonna look better.
And the eight euros are definitely worth it ....
I am looking forward to the final result thank you Lucas
Best regards Martina
Hi Martina,
I've attached photos of the final result. Hope you like them.
Regards
Lucas
08 Oct 2018 6:15 pm: Martina
Hi Lucas.
Perfect! Perfect!
Very, very beautiful.
Thank you very much.
So the table legs can be supplied gladly to Germany. 👍
best regards
Martina
08 Oct 2018 6:45 pm: Martina
Bitte liefern
The Finished Unique Piece – Individually Handmade
Reference: ON001662E-5659
Cost structure of this project
| Price | |
|---|---|
| Cost of material |
20.66
|
| Cost of labour |
27.98
|
| Cost of packaging |
6.03
|
| Local Transport to photoshoot and parcel drop-off |
5.17
|
| Subtotal – payout to artisan |
59.84
|
| Customer acquisition costs (advertising etc.) |
5.98
|
| Handling fee Urban Change Lab |
5.98
|
| Total (excluding shipping & taxes) |
71.8
|
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Note on shipping & taxes
The cost breakdown above shows how the value of this individual project is composed.
Shipping costs and any applicable taxes (e.g. VAT) depend on the delivery country and the specific setup and are therefore not shown as fixed amounts here.
All additional costs are communicated transparently before placing a binding order.
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