2-Tier Side Table

A Project for Myself

This table I made in my furniture making class while I was in undergrad. We had no brief and so I decided to use myself as the target audience and formed my brief accordingly. As a young adult, it is unlikely that I live in any one place for an extended amount of time, and so I wanted a sort of side table or night stand that was easily put together and taken apart. Something easy to transport and move around. I don’t like clutter, and so I did not want multiple shelves or storage optimization. I also needed it to be relatively simple because I could only work on it once a week for a few hours during one semester.

Sketches & Ideation

Fabrication

I used the table saw to cut the grooves to make the legs and stretchers fit together using edge-lap joints, and then into the main column of the table. The main column is made of 4 boards glued together with miter joints in order to look like one solid beam of wood. I made templates for the curves of the legs, stretchers, and tabletop and shelf shapes using a specific formula to find how far to curve in at the corners. Then I used the bandsaw to cut those out and a belt sander to smooth those cuts. I glued the shelf support, but the shelf rests on it and has two dowels that slide into the column behind it, making it stable but also removable. Then I used a router to put a small round over edge on the legs and stretchers, and a larger chamfer bit on the top and shelf to make them appear thinner. In the end, the only permanently fixed parts were the stretchers to the tabletop, to help prevent warping, and the shelf support to the column, as it is the smallest piece and I figured it was the easiest to be lost. Finally, everything was sanded and finished.