Category: table

Coastal Hall Table

I have people coming into my shop looking for furniture so I decided to make a few more pieces. This is a hall or sofa table.

coastal table  
I’m using spindles for the legs. I bought a box of them over five years ago from someone who had leftovers from making a staircase and railings. Although spindles like this are nicely turned, they usually have squared off sections on both the top and the bottom. While I’ve seen people use them for table legs, I find they look awkward with the squared off end on the floor and you would never see a table like that in a furniture store. That all being said I rounded off the corners and made some round disks to add to the bottom of the spindles.
 
As I’ve shown before on this blog, I connect my tables using mortises and tenons, I don’t typically screw the parts together. To make the mortises this time I used my router in my homemade router table. Below you can see on the left is the nozzle for my shop vac, a piece of wood that I use as a “stopper” and the fence that guides the wood so that the router bit is centered on the spindle leg.
 
The next photo shows the leg as it reaches the stop
 
And this is what the top of the leg looks like after the two mortises are put in.
 
The wood for the aprons is thicker than the mortises so I then take some wood off of each side of the apron pieces so that they make tenons that fit in the mortises. I use my table saw for that step. The apron pieces tenons still have to be shortened to fit them even with the top of the legs.
 
 
The legs and aprons were painted white and then distressed and covered with stain, then I put on a clear coat of polyurethane.
For the top I used pieces of wood that were painted different colours ranging from white to dark turquoise. They were then distressed, stained and clear coated.
Underneath I used table clips that fit into slots in the front and back apron pieces. This allows the top to widen or narrow with changing humidity.
 
So, this is my Coastal Table:
 
 
This table is tall, narrow and long, perfect for a hallway or behind a sofa.
31 1/2″ tall x 12″ wide x 37″ long 
 
 
Sharing at:
Proud to be featured for this table at 
funky junk interiors                       
 
and
French Country Cottage
        
 
and 
 
 

Table for the Café

Firstly, I apologize if you earlier got the photos from this blog post without any description. I’m still figuring out blogging on the iPad.

I was asked to build a small table for the local bakery and café, called Maple House. It’s where my daughter works part time and the bakery that I made a welcome sign for. You can see that here. They needed something for the entryway to hold a book for guests to sign, as well as a suggestion box.
While inside the café the upper walls are yellow, the entranceway has light grey walls. The café tables have legs that are metal and are painted black with mottled brown tops.
Maple House Café 
I felt the table in the entranceway should be yellow, to carry the customer’s eye into the café. Fortunately there was a partial can of yellow paint left over from the renovations, so I could use the same paint that was on the walls.
I used poplar, which is a good wood for painting, and made tapered legs and put a bead along the bottom of the apron. Here it is sitting in my workshop:
Table 

 And here is the table in the entranceway (pardon my reflection in the window):
Café Table 
Café Table 
Although this table is small, it took me over 20 hours to plane the wood, cut the pieces, route the beading, glue it together and put on three coats of paint!
follow your heart woodworking  

Window Coffee Table

I was contacted by someone locally who had a window that she wanted made in to a coffee table.  Could I do that?  Of course!

The window was brought in and I worked directly from it for measurements. The customer wanted it made out of pine and the height to be about 18″ with the window on top.

The four legs are just over 1 1/2″ square and I used my router to make mortises on the top for the aprons to fit into.

The side and end aprons have the corresponding tenons on the end, which I did with my table saw:

Every piece is sanded smooth before assembly.

I glue the tenons in to the mortise in pairs, so I have two ends that look like this one:

Then I glue in the side two aprons and the two lower rail pieces that will hold the bottom shelf:

The pieces that make up the shelf are screwed into the bottom rail and I added two figure 8 connectors on opposite sides (they are screwed to the top of the apron from above and then screwed into the window from below):

My customer wanted to paint the table herself, so it is left as unpainted pine.The window then sits on top:

Sharing at:
Sincerely Sara D.
French Country Cottage
My Repurposed Life (Talk of the Town)
Shabbilicious Friday
Coastal Charm
The Dedicated House
The Interior Frugalista
Funky Junk Interiors

Painting a Farmhouse Table and Chairs

I live in an actual farmhouse.  Well, it used to be, now I just pretend I have a farm.  We have dining room set that we moved with us to this lovely farmhouse. The table and chairs are pine in a golden colour. The floors here are very old maple (that’s my best guess). Here is how the table and chairs look in the dining room:

 Here’s a close-up:

Even though I’m a carpenter/cabinetmaker and I love wood… this is too much wood on wood!

So, first I sanded the chair seats because they were very worn.  I did this outside last December 27th, before the snow fell:

As an aside, here is what it looks like out there today!!!!

After sanding I brushed on a couple of coats of shellac (again, this was just the seats).  This is the best thing for keeping knots from bleeding through.

Once those were done I used Gail’s (My Repurposed Life) chalky paint , which is where you make your own primer using Plaster of Paris, a bit of water, and latex paint.  Then I coated the chairs with the same latex paint I had used in the primer. For the table I only painted the apron and legs and left the top as it was.

We haven’t done anything else yet in the dining room, but you can see the difference that painting the table base and chairs has made to the room.

Do you think it was a good idea to paint this table and chairs?

If anyone is keeping track, I really should be posting part 2 of our Biloxi trip. Since Angie at Knick of Time is having a Farmhouse special link up on Friday and the topic is Farmhouse Tables, I quickly put this together so that I could share it there. Stay tuned for Biloxi part 2.

The Dedicated House

I’m sharing this at:

Pallet Tables

I am so behind in my blogging, I will have to just do some quick posts to try to catch up…

I made two tables last year, completely out of pallet wood.

I even had some 2 x 2s with my pallets.  Those I cut in two to make the length of the legs (about 19″ long”) so there was no wastage. The construction is basic and you can see it here:

and here is a close up:

I don’t nail or screw down the tops because they can change widths with changes in humidity, so I use Z clips that insert into a groove in the apron of the table.  This allows the top to expand and contract as the clips move in and out a bit while still in the groove.
One of my tables was painted with a dry brush technique using turquoise paint on the legs and aprons and white solid paint on the top:
For the second second table I used a technique I had not tried before but found Becky using for some of the creations at her blog Beyond the Picket Fence (thanks Becky!)  First the top was painted in turquoise and then after it dried I sanded it smooth so that the turquoise paint was still in the crevices of the rough pallet wood.  Then I wiped stain over the painted top and wiped off the extra.  Also, I stained the legs and apron.
Here’s a close up of the top with my little model:
The top is 18″ x 18″ and the table is 20″ high:
I’ve used a lot of pallet wood in my creations, it’s hard to believe so many people just throw it away!
Homespun Happenings
Sharing at the following blog parties:

Making a Side Table my Own Way – Part 4 – Compass Table

Since the set up for making something from scratch is so much work, from planing the wood to setting the mitre saw on an angle to setting the router for cutting a groove.. why not make more than one table?

Besides, I had the extra legs.

I decided to make a compass table top for my second round table:

My first round table had a clock face, you can see it here  

There are so many bloggers with good ideas and I was inspired by Beth at the blog Make Me Pretty Again who made this great table:

Inspiration photo from Make Me Pretty Again

Here’s another great table with a compass on top… I love the map drawer.  It’s from Nan at the blog sea rose cottage

I made my own circular top by gluing together pieces of scrap pine.  If you make the edges nice and even, you can easily glue pieces side by side, there is no need for screws and ugly screw holes like you get with pocket screws.  Using good quality clamps helps:

I really enjoy making circles with my router.  You can really make any size and I explained how I did it in an earlier post when making my clock face here

The rest of the triangular table build was explained in Part 1 and Part 2 a few days ago.

For this table I painted the legs, base and top with Chalk Paint in the colour “Provence.”  I really wasn’t sure if I could use basic acrylic craft paint over the chalk paint so I emailed Tricia, a blogger at The Purple Painted Lady  who sells Annie Sloan chalk paint. I did not know Tricia, but sent her an email and asked her opinion and she was kind enough to quickly reply that it would be okay to paint over the chalk paint.  She added to wax after adding the craft paint.  It’s so nice to have bloggers helping others like that, thanks Tricia!

I looked online to see how compasses were drawn and using my math skills and a protractor, came up with a design similar to Beths but different. I drew it on with pencil and then painted it by hand.

I sanded the top just a little to distress it and make it appear a bit older and then waxed it all.

Thanks again to Beth, Nan and Tricia and all the bloggers out there that share their ideas and techniques with others.

For this post I was featured at:
Primitive and Proper Beyond The Picket Fence

Sharing at the following blogs:

Miss Mustard Seed                                My Repurposed Life
Brambleberry Cottage                            Shabby Art Boutique
Too Much Time on my Hands                  Funky Junk Interiors
Under the Table and Dreaming                Between Naps on the Porch
Coastal Charm                                       Knick of Time Interiors
Cowgirl Up                                            Elizabeth & Co.    
Savvy Southern Style                             Beyond the Picket Fence
Be Colorful                                            Primitive & Proper
House of Hepworths                              No Minimalist Here
aka design                                              Jennifer Rizzo

Making a Side Table my Own Way – Part 3 – Clock Table

Please check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series to see how I designed and made this table.

After the table was stained, I first put vaseline in spots on the table base and legs as I describe in this post.
Then I painted with white paint on top, in a bit of a rough way, not being concerned about covering every bit of wood.  The vaseline stops the paint from getting through to the wood.  Once the paint is dry, I just rub away the vaseline and the stain shows in those parts.

Here is the underside of the table with the Z clips that I often use.  These clips are essential to allow for wood movement in the top (the clock part).  I wrote more about that here.

Here’s another view of the finished clock table:

Now, you didn’t think I’d only make just one triangular base did you?  I made another quite different table with the same base, I’ll post about it soon.

For this project:

Sharing at the following blogs:
My Repurposed Life                        Miss Mustard Seed
Between Naps on the Porch             Primitive and Proper
Coastal Charm                                Brambleberry Cottage
Cedar Hill Ranch                             Very Merry Vintage Style
Knick of Time Interiors                     Savvy Southern Style
Elizabeth & Co.                               Faded Charm Cottage
Beyond the Picket Fence                 No Minimalist Here
House of Hepworths                        aka design
Common Ground                             Jennifer Rizzo
Shabby Art Boutique                       Too Much Time on my Hands
Funky Junk Interiors                        Under the Table and Dreaming

Making a Side Table my Own Way – Part 2

You can read part 1 in my previous post here

I’m trying to make a triangular table base with 3 legs and a circular top.

Okay, to make the base, I cut the apron pieces out of pine at 60 degrees:

The ends are such that one end overlaps the one beside it, which I’m really not sure how to explain other than that and each end is different, with one going past the adjacent piece.  Perhaps the photo will show it:

In order to have the legs show their “rolls”

 I will cut a groove in each apron piece at a point which will allow the leg to show itself below the apron. So the groove already in the top of the leg will line up with the bottom of the apron.

Inside the groove will sit triangular pieces of plywood that the legs will be screwed into:

This is the bottom of the apron, so, each leg will sit on the triangle and that allows more of the leg to show than if it sat directly on the bottom of the table top.

I’m hoping this hasn’t caused some of you to stop reading, this is unconventional but please stick with me!

Here’s the apron upright, you can also see the grooves put in to hold the Z clips that I use to attach the table top:

Everything was glued together, not so easy to do, because of the angles, but the plywood triangles were a tight fit and they helped hold things together. I also used a few finishing nails at each vertex.

The legs were then screwed in to the plywood triangles and I put a quick coat of stain (using my steel wool and vinegar mix as I did here) over the whole base:

I’ll show the finished table in my next post!