End tables

[Mike Foster]

I am mostly a turner, but occasionally I venture into the dark/flat side to complete something for our house. I've spent the last couple of months building some end tables to complement our new couch and a pair of really nice lamps made by a local pottery artisan. I took inspiration for these from a number of sources, but heavily on the Shaker tradition because my wife and I both like the spare clean lines in Shaker work. I also took inspiration from Garret Hack, and much of the joinery was modeled after a few of his pieces shown in FWW. I went all out (for me) doing a lot of hand work with planing, scraping... The joints are haunched and pinned mortise and tenons, bridle joints for the drawer runners, breadboard joints mortised into the legs for the shelves and dovetails for the drawers. It was fun to do, but I could never make any money at it. Cherry, curly maple, kingwood (pins and knobs) and butternut for drawer bottoms. Thanks for looking.



Mike


breezyhillturning.com

[Dan Owen]

Very nice piece Mike. A very clean and refreshing look.

[Dick Bringhurst]

Those "turned" out very well. I like them. Dick B.

[Jim Dunn]

That is some real nice workmanship! Do you have any pictures of the table going together? Please post if you do.

[Don Bullock]

That's a beautiful table Mike. I like the contrast in wood. The use of bead board ends on the bottom shelf is an interesting detail that I don't recall seeing all that often. Nice design.

[gary Zimmel]

Mike

Beautiful looking table! Great workmanship....

[Dave Verstraete]

Mike
Great Tables. I love the contrast with the different woods. Maybe your interests have "turned" to the dark side.

[John Keeton]

You may have found salvation in the "dark side." That is some fantastic work. The wood is beautiful, and your lines are clean. Some, like me, that do flatwork only aspire to that kind of quality. I would encourage you to turn off the lathe for awhile, and provide some more projects for the rest of us to enjoy!!

[Jim Becker]

Darn...that sure looks familiar!! (I just did two in purpleheart and figured maple) Great job!! I just love this design and it's very practical for both end-table use and as bedside stands as I'll be using mine.

[Sean Troy]

My thoughts also at first look were very clean looking. Nice job.

[scott spencer]

Nicely done Mike. Simple, elegant, beautiful.

[Jeff Wittrock]

Beautiful table Mike. Just wondering... the title of the post says "End Tables". Did you make a couple of these?

[Mark Valsi]

Very nice !

I like the asymetrical drawers ! my wife and I argue about that all the time !

Gives it a good personal touch !

Good job !

[Joseph Peacock]

Awsom work Mr.Mike.

[Mike Foster]

Thanks for all the nice comments.

Jim, I didn't think to document building the piece with photo's. May have been a good idea. I used the photo booth that I made for photographing my turned work for this. It pushed the limits of my booth to get a photo of just one of the tables. I didn't play with the lighting a whole lot, probably could have done better though.

Don, I used breadboard ends on the shelf to avoid expansion/contraction problems with the severe humidity swings we get here in VT. I worried about the stress such movement would place on the case joinery translated from the shelf through the legs.

Jeff, yes I made 2 tables to go with our new couch. They are mirror images of each other.