Cindy & Bryan's Wood Shop
Coffee Table 2
One of the main selling points of our house was the sunroom off the back, but that was before we realized it was an architectural mess. We had it knocked down and rebuilt to code and now it is everything we wanted. Of course, another room means more furniture.
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After building the dining room and 2x4 coffee tables, we were confident we could tackle another table. This time we took a different approach.
We wanted to do something a little more decorative for the legs this time around. Since we don't have a lathe, we had to purchase them from the store ... not everything needs to be from scratch.
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Using our trusty pocket hole jig, we screwed the skirt to the legs. We are big on being able to take everything apart, so the screws are a great way to give it enough strength and are easy to take out if needed.
We made the frame one piece with a gap for the drawer. This made it flexible and helped us install the drawer easily and squared everything out. With the drawer installed, we screwed the top on to the frame using corner brackets which will allow us to take everything apart.
After a month or so, some of the knots in the wood started to appear through the paint which only added to the rustic appearance. One thing we would have done differently is make a shorter drawer. We decided to make it run the width of the table, but that causes the drawer to bump into the couch before it is fully open. Items can get lost in the back of the drawer so the table needs to be pushed away from the couch to fully open the drawer.
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The grooves in the top look great and were an excellent solution to not having to usewood filler which is not cheap and can crack.
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Overall, the table came out great and we are happy with the look of the legs and the distressed paint.
This time we made the top out of 5/4x6 pine boards, the same ones we used for the dining room table. We wanted the grooves that we had on the 2x4 coffee table, but not as pronounced. After we cut the boards to length, we went over the edges with a sander to round them off and then glued them together to form the top.
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This method gave us the look we wanted and eliminated the need to fill gaps between the boards.
We upped the challenge by installing a drawer. We created the box with 1x4 pine boards and routed out a channel so we could slide the drawer bottom in. To make the drawer fit flush to the side of the table, we installed a false front out of a 5/4x4 boards. The drawer has come in handy and we have considered going back to old projects and doing the same.
We wanted more of a rustic look for the table so we decided to do a distressed paint job. To get this look we painted the entire base blue and once that dried we painted it again with white paint. To give it more of an aged look we coated the base with glaze effects. This "dirtied" the white paint and accented the grooves on the legs and knots. We then sanded the frame with different grits of sandpaper. This brought the blue through and in some spots we sanded until we exposed the wood. The table was then protected with poly and was ready for use!
