Side Table

I took my first shop class my last semester of college — in retrospect I wish I found a way to take more. Shop always interested me and I loved the class. During this class we used a CNC as well as other hand and machinery tools.

Our big project was a table. I choose to build a bedroom side table. I was going for simple and versatile. I also wanted to experiment with mortise and tenon joints. I was pushing the limits on how close I could put the mortise and tenon joint to the edge at a long length.

The side table is built solely with wood to wood joints meaning I did not use screws or nails on this project. Instead I focused on using boxed finger joints, mortise and tenon joints and a healthy amount of glue.

I used white oak (by the board foot) I picked up locally for almost the entirety of the side table. For the bottom of the drawer I used old wood flooring from Seaton, our architectural building, which was in the beginning phases of being completely revamped.

I love how the legs connect to the bottom of the table top. I also love the hole in the top (hidden under the sign) that opens into the drawer… the drawer that also has a hole in the bottom to allow for a phone cord to be hidden and tidied away as it reaches to an outlet on the wall. The draw slides wonderfully too — except when we are in seasons of high humidity and the wood swells shut.

:)