Final Project Coffee Table
Class: 24-672, DIY Design & Fabrication
Task: Create anything of your choosing for the final project.
I decided that I wanted to create a coffee table for my apartment. I live with my girlfriend so I needed to create a table that we both liked. I wanted it to be made from wood, with simple metal legs, and have a modern look to it. The only size constraint was that I wanted it to be the same height as the seat of our couch, which was 18” off the ground.
I started by brainstorming some possible shapes of the table, and then ran them by my girlfriend to see which ideas she liked the best (signaled with a star by them).
Next I drew some more in-depth drawings of the ideas to get a better idea of how they would look. We both liked the drawing of the table below the most.
I foudn this wood for a good price and decided that I would get two slabs of this.
I would make the upright parts by cutting 1’ of wood off of each slab. That would leave me with the horizontal parts being about 3’ long and 20”. So the table would be 3’ long and 20” wide, and about 1’ tall. Then I would have to buy 6” legs to put on the bottom.
So I started by making another drawing so that I could further develop what I thought the table would look like.
I then needed to decide the size, as well as the material I would be making the table out of.
Next we had to choose a stain color. I was leaning toward the darker colors, and my girlfriend was leaning toward the red colors. We decided to meet in the middle on Red Mahogany (second row, furthest right).
Below are some pictures I took during the making of the table. I took the wood to a family friend who had a table saw big enough to cut the 20” wood. In the top left, you can see the dry fit with clamps to make sure the wood fit together. Then we glued the piece and added L-brackets to the underside of the top of the table for some added support while remaining hidden. Once the glue had cured, I started applying the stain. I did two coats all around. After the stain was ready, I drilled the holes for some legs that I had purchased from McMaster-Carr.
Final Product
