Hello everyone!

I’ve been a bit lazy in the new year and I haven’t posted any new article since December. The truth is that I’ve been working on multiple projects in parallel and I had to wait to finish all of them to put together the posts.

This post is about a coffee table for the living room made out of hard wood (beech). I’ve never built a table, not event from soft wood, so it’s was quite a bit of challenge to work with hard wood.

I had some beech lumber in the workshop so it was just perfect for this job.

Table Specification:  L x W x H: 140 cm x 75 cm x 50 cm.

Making the table top

To make the table top I’ve used 1.8 cm thick lumbers and glued them with a tongue and groove joint. The key is to press them very hard while the glue dries.

Once the top was ready I focused on the table margins. The margins were 3.5 – 4 cm thick to create the illusion that the entire top is thick and massive.

To mount the margins I’ve did a groove of a 1.8 cm depth, this way I could easily glue everything together.

To finish the top, I’ve did repeated sanding with different grits: 60 , 80, 100 , 120.

I’ve started with the belt-sander  and finished with the random orbit sander to obtain a clean and smooth finish.

 Making the table legs

The table is quite short (~50 cm) so the legs so don’t need any bottom reinforcement. I’ve decided to make some rectangle legs opposed to the rounded legs, it gives a modern look.

To join the legs a I’ve made a frame using mortise and tenon joint. I’ve my pantorouter (How to build a wood pantorouter) to cut the tenon and mortise.

Once the tenon and mortise slots were cut I’ve glued them together in two steps for a  better result. It’s important to check the square before securing the glue pieces.

Finishing the table

We are at the finishing phase, both the top and the legs are ready. The next step is to stain the wood an apply 3 coat of varnish.

Staining the table:

After applying the varnish:

… and here we are, the table is living room and ready to be used  !