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they are constantly rotating between:

• heated blanket on couch
• kotatsu table
• heating pad i surrendered to them
• our laps (grendel, anyway)

so they are always warm and close by. they've been sleeping at the foot of the bed almost every night, too.

Kotatsu 3.0

After dealing with structural issues throughout the entirety of my ventures into Kotatsu-building, his time I said, enough is enough, I need WOOD.

So I got the INGO from IKEA: aka the most affordable real wood table I could find.

I decided I wanted the table to be around 15" tall, broke out my little japanese hand saw (makes much cleaner cuts and is easier to be accurate!) and carefully measured, marked, and cut all four legs to the same height.

Once all were cut and I checked that they were the same within a millimeter or so, I used the flush, factory cut sides down on the table to get them lined up and taped them together to secure them for the sanding pass to get them even closer to identical.

You can see the edges are nicely rounded and sanded because I took a very sharp exacto knife and beveled the edges and then further rounded them out with sandpaper. Nice. imo.

Once that was done, I built the table following the normal instructions, but I also added wood glue for extra strength. And boy is this thing sturdy. Solid. Season 6 of Riverdale Archie Andrews levels of strength here. Perfect. Love it.

Underneath

Now to talk about my Innovations.

I knew using this table would mean ditching the traditional build style wherein the blanket is sandwiched between the table frame and the table top. That is just how it is done normally! I'd love to have a proper, fancy kotatsu table but to import even a very small table to canada from japan costs thousands o' dollars. Even having made several iterations of Kotatsu table over the past few years, I've barely scratched the cost of a single import.

But!!! While looking at this table as I was deciding if I could Make it Work ™️I thought: ohoho, it has a skirting around the edge... this table's got an apron! I can... Hide things... Some kind of blanket...mounting...system...

And I thought about my options; maybe a curtain rail, or velcro, or magnets. But then the thought struck me: I'm using WOOD. I can use WOOD GLUE to secure WOODEN THINGS together. You know that tried and true method for pinning fabric into place? The one we humans have had for many years? WOODEN CLOTHESPINS. That's right baybee.

I compared the table and blanket measurements to make sure there'd be ample blanket along the edges, not just enough to fall to the ground and trap the warmth under the table, but enough to snuggle up in.

I went with a thin quilt for the blanket that I knew I could easily cut a rectangle out of in the center, approximately the size of the table top, so that I could pin those edges up with the clothespins to create the "tent" around the underside of the table. (I will finish those edges another day...)
The blanket ended up sort of like this:

Now to talk about the finish. The pine is unfinished, IKEA kinda markets it as "ready to paint" but I didn't want to paint it. And I didn't really want to do any finishes that use solvents because I just don't have the time, space, or ventilation to deal with that. So I thought about whitewashing it with a watered down white paint. But then I read about SOAP FINISH. A traditional, safe, and cheap method of finishing wood that is used on a lot of modern danish furniture and even floors.

So I got me some soap flakes! And hot water! And made me some... Goop Of Questionable Appearance! Stored in a jar!

So far I've only done one coating of the soap so I need to sand and repeat a few more times to get it to the lighter shade I'm hoping for.

I didn't want to do the Lye step to prevent future yellowing. I have no idea how long it will take for the wood to start yellowing, but when I get to that stage, I'll simply give it a sanding, do a white wash, and finish with soap wash for the nice soft-to-touch texture it has.

In any case, this feels like the most permanent solition so far! It's a sturdy af real wood table, the clothespins are easy to replace if needed, it's functional, the finish should be easy to build up and maintain, it can be changed to a whitewash if needed, the kotatsu heater is solidly mounted. KOTATSU SEASON IS A GO.

Kotatsu 2.0

With 2.0 I went with two LINNMON table tops with wooden furniture legs, tried and true Kotatsu heater mounted to the bottom table top layer, with the blanket sandwiched between. This one worked well as a coffee table because it better fit the shape of the space I was working with.

I tried to make it look a little less IKEA by adding metal corner...caps? Thingies? And I used matching clasps to hold the two table tops together when it wasn't Kotatsu season (ie: no blanket). The clasps were not very strong and definitely meant more for like... a decorative jewelry box. I should have gone with ones meant for closing a chest or something.

I digress. I tried to reboot Kotatsu table 2.0 but the structural integrity of the LACK tables I was using failed and the mounted furniture legs simply could not be secure enough, no matter how much engineering I did. The IKEA particle board just wanted to crumble when I mounted the legs. From the get go was kind of a fiddly build, ngl. Worked better in concept than practice. Apparently I never even took very good photos of it, so I think I was never quite satisfied with it, which is fine, but then it broke in a way I could no longer fix. C'est la vie.

Kotatsu 1.0

is probably still the most aesthetically pleasing, but it only worked when it was also being used as our dining table. We ended up getting a taller, standard dining table to place in that spot, and the round table didn't quite work out as a coffee table.

It was made from a $15 LACK table from IKEA as the base, a thin layer of mdf board cut to the same size as the table top (with a handsaw, I might add...), and a table top. The blanket sandwiched between the layers, the heater mounted to the underside of the Lack. One day if I ever have a house, I WILL once again have a round Kotatsu table, and I'll find a way to get a custom round futon & quilt for it. They simply rip.

One Final Note:

If you live somewhere cold, I highly recommend either converting your existing coffee table to a seasonal kotatsu, or using this as an excuse for a new table. Learn from my mistakes! Get creative!

The two things you really need to pay special care with are:

1. Make sure you buy an actual kotatsu heater like the one I have. I got mine on ebay for about $80 three years ago and it's still going strong. Look at reviews, etc, I don't remember what specific kind I have but it's got a quartz element encased in a grate covered in some kind of flocking that makes it feel like Velvet and it's safe to touch, so you don't have to worry about you or your pets or small children getting burnt if they brush against the grate.

2. If you're outside of Japan you will need a power step converter. It took three purchases/two returns to buy the correct one so I will not be providing advice on what to look for here. If you aren't a dumbass with dyscalculia like me you'll probably have an easier time deducing if a power step converter will work for your power grid. I think the US and Canada are 120 volts?? idk I don't remember. I pray it never breaks.