A Place for my Coffee (Part 1)

Since I was really little I have always loved large craft projects. I think it comes from a combination of my mother's endless creations with me as a child and my Father's need to fix absolutely everything that breaks in a one mile radius. Since I finally have free time that is not filled up with work, classes, homework, or sports I realized I have time to create again. This dawned on me last week and after creating an Anthropologie style necklace (which I will try to post in the next couple days) and I realized that I wanted to make something more challenging. Being the person that I am I decided to jump headfirst into a much more challenging project....creating a coffee table. 

Yesterday morning I scoured the internet for plans to create the perfect coffee table. I find ones that I could easily follow (thank you Ana White) I presented the idea to my very shocked mother and asked her to accompany me to Home Depot. After looking at me with a confused expression on her face, and asking me if I had the budget to create it, she agreed to go with me. I think her motivation was less to appease me, and more to keep me busy for a few days so that she could get the work she wanted to accomplish done. :)

Half an hour later I had 9 8 foot boards loaded into my small Honda Accord and my mother and I were on the way home so I could build. We unloaded them and I was left in my basement with my plans, my boards, and some music.

Boards I purchased:  

1 – 2×2 8′ length board
1 – 2×6 8′ or stud length board
4 – 2x4s 8′ or stud length boards
1 – 4×4 post at least 6′ length
2 – 1×4 boards

Luckily, my father's collection of tools is enough to fill a small hardware store so I had no problem picking a saw, drill, screwdriver, wood glue, and 2 1/2" screws out of the tool room in my house. After that all that was left to do was build my table.

Step 1.

Cut the boards to the lengths needed. (aka learn how to use this saw)

I decided to create a table that is 24"wide x 18"high x 55' long. To get it to be this size I needed to cut:

A) 4 – 4×4 Posts @ 16 1/2″ (Legs)
B) 2 – 1×4 @ 20 1/2″ (Leg Joiners)
C) 2 – 1×4 @ 40″ (Side Aprons)
D) 4 – 1×4 @ 2 3/4″ (End Apron Spacer)
E) 2 – 1×4 @ 15″ (End Aprons)
F) 4 – 2×2 @ 20 1/2″ (Tabletop Supports)
G) 7 – 2×4 @ 43 1/2″ (Tabletop Pieces)
H) 2 – 2×6 @ 24 1/2″ (Breadboard Ends. I would wait to the end to cut theses.)

Side note: I plan on using wood glue everywhere just in case my awesome building skills are not awesome enough to hold the table together. I also plan on pre-drilling all the holes so I don't crack any of the boards.

Step 2. Connect two legs (a) to 1 leg joiner (b). Repeat with the other two legs (a) and the other leg joiner (b). Now connect leg joiner (c) to one set of legs (a+b) and repeat with the other set. It should look something like the images below. Actually, if you are anything like me you will have skimmed over the last couple sentences and move straight on to the pictures. Lets be honest, they are much less confusing than words anyway.

Step 3. Add the end apron spacers(d) and then add end aprons(e) to create a small box on each of the ends. Again see below.
Step 4. Add tabletop supports (f). They should be 6 1/2" apart.

Step 5. Find the center and attach the first board.  To do this, measure the width of the table. Divide it by two to get the mid-point. Next measure and calculate the middle of one of the table top pieces (g). It should be around 1". Line up the middle of the table top piece with the middle of the width of the table. Next, measure 1 3/4" from each end of the table (length-wise) and center the board so there is a 1 3/4" gap on each end. Aline other table top boards exactly next to this one and screw them in through the bottom. See images below.

Since there were screws in the way I was unable to screw the last two table top pieces in the same way as the others so I added small blocks of leftover wood to each corner and screwed the tabletop pieces into them.

This is what it should look like when it is all put together.

Step 6. Add the two breadboard ends (h). I waited to cut these until the end, because wood is not perfect, and it can be warped. If it isn't exactly straight it can make the measurements change. Measure the width of the table and cut the two breadboards to match. Line them up with the edge of the other boards and screw them in. The construction part of the table is finished!

Because I wanted my coffee table to look like it is from Pottery Barn instead of a real barn I decided to put some extra work into it to make it look catalogue worthy. First I filled in all the screw holes with wood putty, and let them dry.  Then I sanded the entire surface to decrease the chance of splinters. (I really hate those things.)  

The ironic thing is that to make it look Pottery Barn-esque I needed to make it look distressed, so I took my nice new table and beat it up. I mostly just attacked it with a chain, but then I decided I would like to increase my ninja skills and sliced it with a pizza cutter, hit it with a file and hammer and beat the edges down with a sander. It was actually quite the stress reliever. I would advise putting less effort in than I did, my muscles are sore today. 

The plan is to pick out a dark stain and finish the project tomorrow. But having no experience with staining wood I decided to wait until my dad can help. Stay tuned for A Place for my Coffee part two where the goal is to have a perfectly stained coffee table. 

UPDATE: see it finished here!