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Country Style Coffee Table Plans
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Coffee tables are fun projects. They move along quickly and don't require heavy outlays for material. There is an almost endless array of forms, from chunky to sleek, from ornate to simple.
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Country Style Coffee Table Using 303-CSF Legs I wanted a hard-working table, one packed with useful features like a drawer to stash TV remotes and a shelf for display space. This table could easily be around 100 years from now, so the base is made from durable but inexpensive maple. |
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The Top
I milled the cut-off down to ¾", and trued up the length and width. I added 1 5/8" wide breadboards at either end to keep the single board flat. Being a country pine piece, I gave the pine board a simple bullnose profile. Finished top dimensions 32" x 19.5" I felt that longer top overhangs at the ends (4") than on the sides (2") enliven the proportions with variety and ciphered my way to finished base dimensions of 24" x 15.5". |
The old Northfield 24" jointer easily flattens the 20" wide cut-off. I love this machine for wide boards! |
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The Breadboard Ends 
Bullnose edge, breadboard end and pegging details. |
Breadboard ends gave the top an additional 12% more surface area and added more country flavor of the piece. Good breadboard ends are complicated. Fine Woodworking magazine has excellent articles on the topic. Also, refer to my American Woodworker magazine article colonial tavern table in the tablelegs.com plans archive. |
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The Leg
My favorite coffee table leg right now is the 303-CSF. This leg features a simple ball foot beneath a stretcher block from which to fly the shelf. The shaft has simple ring turnings framing a tapered shaft with classy fluting details that lends a lot of visual interest. |
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Leg Detail |
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The Base
The 4" 400 series aprons have been notched to accept the drawer runners. The aprons have pocket holes for mounting the top, and the drawer opening has been cut out.
The stretchers have been rabbeted to accept the shelf. The maple mortise and tenon joints have been pegged with contrasting square pegs from a cherry peg kit. 
Assembled base viewed from the bottom. |
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Stretcher and Shelf
The shelf is supported by 2" stretcher stock. These 4 stretchers are tenoned on each end and inserted into matching mortises in the stretcher block. The top inside edge of the stretcher has been rabbeted to accept the shelf.
You need to allow for cross grain seasonal movement across the width of the shelf, about 1/8" of movement per 12" of shelf width. It is best to install the shelf with floating spline joints rather than as a glued up solid. Leave enough space at the floating joints, and around the leg notch to allow the shelf to expand without pushing the leg joints open during the humid season. I always pre-stain the splines so when the shelf boards contract, no white wood appears in the joints. |
Dry fitting the shelf boards into the stretcher dado. Note the spline joints. 
Drawer guides are installed proud of the drawer opening to create clearance for the drawer to slide freely on the guides (keep 'em waxed!) without rubbing on the edge of the opening itself. |
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Drawer
The pine drawer was made the traditional way. Half-inch thick drawer stock and a ¾" front are dovetailed to make the box. The underside of the ½" thick bottom is beveled to ¼" thickness at its leading and side edges. This beveled drawer bottom is held captive by a ½" dado cut around the inside faces of the box before assembly. The bottom is purposely left long in the back. It is then trimmed during final drawer fitting so that it simply and sweetly stops the drawer front flush with the apron front when the drawer is in the closed position. |
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Finishing  
I antiqued the base with keys and an awl. I wore away the stretcher with a drawknife and spoke shave. The corners got peened over with a mallet. The whole piece was stained the tabletop color with aniline dye. The base was then sealed with shellac and given a base coat of mustard yellow milk paint followed by a topcoat of bayberry green milk paint. I expect the top to mellow beautifully from the numerous coats of linseed oil cut 50-50 with turps. An oversize solid brass Round Cabinet Knob 3/4" adorns the completed project.
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303-CSF Country Style Coffee Table |
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