People who move frequently tend to buy and discard furniture often, which can create a lot of waste. The Floyd Leg, a tool developed by Kyle Hoff, seeks to alleviate this problem. How? It allows people to make a table from almost any flat surface, and they can easily disassemble the table the next time they move.
A few years ago, Hoff found himself moving a lot for school and work. After buying and getting rid of a fair amount of furniture, he decided he wanted a desk that would be easy to pack up and take with him. The solution he came up with is the Floyd Leg, a “tool that gives you the framework to take ownership of your furniture.” The Floyd Leg is a simple device: a metal leg with a clamp on the end that can be fastened to a flat surface to make a table. Assembly is easy — no special skills required — and users can save money by seeking out salvaged materials to reuse as tabletops.
The designer’s work space used to be an auto garage in Detroit, and Hoff wanted to keep the history of the building in mind with the things he makes. The leg is named after Hoff’s father and grandfather, both steel mill workers named Floyd, and the legs are manufactured in Detroit through partnerships with machine shops.
Hoff launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Floyd Leg with fellow University of Michigan alumnus Alex O’Dell, and they successfully funded the first production run of the device, surpassing their initial goal of $18,000 by more than $238,000.
The Floyd Leg Kickstarter campaign page also encourages users of the Floyd Leg to make use of salvaged items for their tables.
“Most of our cities have a rich supply of reclaimed materials available at low costs,” Hoff writes. “It’s exciting to explore these places and imagine material combinations that fit around our own taste and preferences.”
A tabletop can be a piece of wood, glass or even an old door, so users can get creative. To learn more, visit the Floyd Leg’s website.