I started this table with every intention of making a small night-stand for my sons room. This is my first real piece of furniture, I have made a couple book cases, chess boards, and a few butchers block cutting boards but building a real honest-to-goodness table was a first for me.

I wanted to make something in the mission style since I had a lot of scrap oak laying around. Everything but the top was salvaged from landfills and fire places. The sides and front were from an old electrician’s ladder, the legs were some white oak that had been used as a pallet base, and the bottom shelf was some oak pallet wood used to ship HEPA filters. I cut the knob from an oak table leg that was literally pulled out of a firewood pile. I left the iron stains in because I wanted some reminder of the woods former life. There were large nail holes in the bottom shelf that I filled with 1/8 dowel and trimmed flat that blend in pretty well with their iron stain accents.

The top is quarter sawn red oak I picked up at a local lumber yard. I have never seen curly oak before and thought I would try it out. I was able to match the figure up really nicely and ended up with a really beautiful top.

The joinery for the sides and lower stretchers is mortise and tenon. My father in law picked up a harbor freight mortiser at a garage sale for $40. I suppose the tool and ample free time due to recent unemployment really inspired the build. The bargain mortiser works well enough to make square holes, sometimes even where you want them!

The drawer was my first attempt at hand cutting half blind dove tails, they came out ok but with some ugly gaps. I used a crown backsaw which may be replaced come Christmas. I finished the whole thing with Watco Danish Oil in the dark walnut variety. It was not particularly dark but in the end I like the look. I screwed the top on with pocket screw technology, and voila, a table!

I don’t know what you might call the style really, I think of it as a mission inspired take on shaker design, but I am a bit partial :).