Oak Coffee Table with Drawer

This coffee table was a request from my wife for my MIL, after many weeks of looking for a table that met her “complex” requirements, I simply ask “How long does this go on before I just make it?” Apparently that point was reached!

The table is Oak with a Minwax Early American stain, finished with Minwax wiping satin varnish. I normally avoid staining, but this was necessary to match existing pieces.

I spent considerable time looking at designs that provided the key requirement which was a drawer. Cutting an opening in the skirt creates a weak point and I needed help on how to overcome it. After perusing the net, I turned to old school technology and actually looked in a book; not just any book, but a classic which I have had for 25 years – Thomas Moser’s Measured Shop Drawings for American Furniture, published in 1985. The design and drawings in this book were enough for me to do the build; a rather ingenious design with a false skirt screwed to the back of the front skirt with a continuous piece which goes under the drawer lip tying it together across the front. There are also rails which serve as drawer guides mortised into the back skirt and screwed to the false skirt in the front. All skirts are tenoned into the legs, making a very solid piece.

The table is 16”wx41”lx17”h.

I hope she likes it.

Thanks for looking.

-- Richard D. Wile, http://richard-wile.blogspot.ca/ IG: @rdwile