Small Kitchen Table with a few Greene & Greene design elements


Jerry_in_SD

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After remodeling our kitchen last year we needed to replace our prior table which was too big for the niche space we left.  So I decided to build one as finding one in the right dimensions would be a challenge.  Because our kitchen has some G&G design elements I decided to do the same with the table.  

 

Made from African Mahogany and Ebony.  Dyed with 7 pts Orange + 4 pts medium brown GF dye stain -- only one coat.  Based finished with wipe on Arm-R-Seal.   Top finished with 6 coats of spray on GF Enduro-VAR -- was attempting poor fill using top coat.    Stretcher has integral through tenons which is a first for me.  Easy really. 

 

Faults:

 

1.  Top warped even after applying breadboard ends.  Not sure how to correct this problem in the future.  Maybe add some battens on the bottom side?  I did not detect this until I completed finishing and attached the base.  Because the top was warped, it racked the base so I would not sit level on floor.  Ended up putting in shims under one of legs, on top between leg and table top to compensate for the warp.  If I had caught this before finishing, I would have hand planned it flat. 

 

2. I attempted to pore fill using top coat and thus applied 6 coats.   I probably did not aggressively sand enough between coats which which meant I could have done fewer coats.  Hey, I was worried about burning through to the dye.  Next time, I will pore fill before top coat.  

 

3.  I should have checked viscosity as Enduro-VAR finish needed to be a little thinner.   Finish did not level out fast as it should but did, except for the edges of the table in which I had to level with sand paper and then apply thin top coat -- that worked but should not have been necessary. 

 

 

My wife came up with the original sketch which I then translated to Sketchup.

 

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I had a jig for making the ebony splines that I built several years ago based upon a Darrell Peart design but decided to build a new one based on his latest book.  Worked great and much simpler. 

 

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Here is the end result:

 

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Another view:

 

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And with the kitchen in view in it's final resting place:

 

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Except for the base stretcher which had integral tenons as they are through tenons on the legs, I used floating (slip, loose) tenons on the rest.  Here is shot of routing mortise in end grain of vertical leg component:

 

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Here are the piece parts for the base.  I stained these prior to assembly. 

 

 

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Here is assembly of the base.      

 

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Now the top:

 

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Chopping mortises:

 

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And here is a shot of one ebony spline installed.  Note Darrell's book open the background :).  

 
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Adding the ebony trim pieces:

 

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And this is how I attached base to top.

 

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I have more photos but thought this was enough.  

 

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Looks pretty nice!

Shame it warped on you. Unless it's really noticeable or just drives you crazy leave it alone for awhile and see if it settles down first .

 

Thanks.  Yea,  from a user perspective (diners in this case), you would never know about the warp.  But I do and any woodworker worth his salt would look under the table, see those shims and go HA HA!, guy has a warped top!  Caught ya! 

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Very nice Jerry, really like the Greene and Greene style, I used rosewood instead of ebony on the projects I built last year because a friend gave me some, is ebony hard to work with in this application and have you had ant experience with rosewood?

Thanks. I've never worked with any of the rosewoods so I cannot compare to Ebony. I've never had any difficulty working with Ebony on these small pieces. It's a little brittle so I would think sharp cutting tools would be in order. If there is a grain pattern I'm unable to discern it and have never had blowout problems routing for example. My problem with Gabon Ebony is it is expensive. I cut with thin kerf blades to minimize waste. I hate seeing that black saw dust in my DC bag. I feel I should be snorting that stuff it's so expensive.

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Nice table Jerry - the G&G elements are there without screaming GREENE AND GREENE!. 

 

I think you mentioned in another post that you've done some other G&G projects - I'd love to see em'.

 

From a design standpoint, does that lower hanging apron block your knees from tucking under the table when seated? 

 

EDIT: Stretcher, not apron

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Nice table Jerry - the G&G elements are there without screaming GREENE AND GREENE!.

I think you mentioned in another post that you've done some other G&G projects - I'd love to see em'.

From a design standpoint, does that lower hanging apron block your knees from tucking under the table when seated?

EDIT: Stretcher, not apron

Thanks. Actually no problem on the leg clearance. We did a little testing before hand just to make sure. Was a concern of mine as well. If I had more patience I should make full scale mock ups out or cardboard or something. Worked out this time anyway. If you try to sit on the end, there is a slight problem though. Of course my teenage daughter sits there so....

I did a small occasional table when Marc did the shaker table build so that should be somewhere on this site. I also did my kitchen in a Greene & Greene style which I posted in December 2013 in this projects section - not really furniture though.

Edited by Jerry_in_SD
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