For Kristen's birthday last month I decided to upgrade our bedside tables. For the past 2 1/2 years we had been using TV trays that we covered in drapes... to hide the fact that they were TV trays. Thus after looking at designs of what Kristen and I liked, I decided I would try a few new things to my newest woodworking project.I wanted to:
1) have a more petite look, longer legs for the piece and more open space.
2) make a drawer using dovetail joints (best website I found was this http://thewoodwhisperer.com/). I did these by hand instead of buying a jig.
Here is what I did
What I used/What you would need:
- The wood was Poplar (from Home Depot and Lowe's... mostly 6" and 8" boards)
- Skil saw
- Jig Saw
- 6 - 8 clamps (Harbor Freight has some cheap clamps)
- Speed Square
- Level
- Chisels
- Drill
- Dowel jig (for drill) and dowels (found the jig at Lowe's for about $30; It was a life saver and allowed for straight holes to hold the dowels)
- Wood glue
- Dovetail Saw (handsaw) (for dovetails)
- Coping Saw (for dovetails)
- Electric finishing sander
INSTRUCTIONS:
1) The very first thing to do is draw out (or get off the Internet) the exact size dimensions. It is always easiest to do this work up front and not try to figure it out as you go. I ran into a lot of snags with my drawers b/c I did not plan the sizes out correctly. I choose to "draw" my own plans. I am NOT about to say these were originals, they are not unique in and of themselves... But I did not base them on anything specific, and the dimensions were based on what I wanted them to look like... I shall call them semi-originals.
Here are some of the drawings... I wasn't sure on the leg design, that is why the two legs look different.
2) Once I had all the wood together, I started cutting everything down to the sizes I needed. My first problem that I ran into was the legs. They did not carry the dimensions in Poplar anymore at Home Depot or Lowe's, so I had to come up with something that I could use.
3) For each leg I would take two 1/2" X 2" boards and glue/clamp them together...
after those dried I drew out (with a template I made) the shape of the leg. I finally got to use my new jig saw Kristen bought me. I will say the legs started off pretty sloppy, but as I did each leg, the cuts were straighter and smoother with each one. So don't look at the back legs too close.
5) As the sides were drying, I connected the top piece together with more dowels.
6) Once the legs dried, I attached the back piece to each side (again with dowels).
7) The next step, while the glue for the top, legs & back dried, was to make the drawer for the first table... If you know anything about dovetails, or if you go look at a dresser in your home that has them, you will quickly realize that the dovetails for my first table were backwards. In other words I confused myself as to which way to cut and did not correct myself until I realized that the two sides would not connect and stay together. After spending about an hour cutting the dovetails, I ended up using glue and screws to connect them. dovetails:1, Joel: 0...
The cut dovetails... backwards
My solution to the backwards dovetails
8) Once both backwards dovetails were complete, I connected them to the back piece and let the glue set.. One drawer down, one to go.
Since I knew what it looked like when I messed up on the dovetail joints, I was a little more careful on the second go at it. Here is the backside of the second drawer and as you can see the dovetails were correct this time. They are obviously a leeeetttle sloppy, but I was just happy they weren't backwards.
Both drawers completed. As you can see they do not have the front plate connected yet. As I said before, I do not know what I am doing with my projects and I rationalized that if I added the front piece last (after I had the runners on the tables), even if the drawer sat a little crooked, I could connect the front to at least look like it wasn't crooked.
9) Once I had both drawers made, I connected the top piece to the legs and back (again with dowels), as well as connected runners to the bottom of each side for the drawers to sit on.
10) Since the first table was 90% done, I started on the second one. Same process as above, although a lot faster on the second one... Also the legs looked a lot better on the second one since I had gotten a feel for the jig saw.
Table #1 with the runners for the drawer
Table #2 with sides and back
Table #2 w/ top
11) The next step was to add the shelf to the bottom. Again I don't know if my method is correct, but what I did was I used dowels for the shelf to sit on (so that I could make sure it was level). Once I had it where I wanted it, I drilled holes and screwed each leg to the shelf.
Both tables complete before trim and sanding. I used a cheap candle to rub against the runners for the drawer in order to allow them to slide more easily, it actually worked really well.
12) Next was the trim. As you can see from the pictures, I added trim to the top, the drawer, and the bottom of each side. It helped hide some of the imperfections and I thought it gave it some depth.
13) The second to last step for me was to fill in the nail holes (on the trim) and any other areas with a wood filler. After that I used 80 and 150 grit sand paper to sand it all down.
14) The last step was to paint it all. I primed everything with a flat gray primer.
Once the primer had dried I started on the actual color. I decided I wanted a high gloss black.
Second and final coat...
15) The last think I did was distress the edges. I love distressing furniture and thought the gray primer coat looked good coming through. So far everything has held up and Kristen loved them. SUCCESS!
Finally cleaned and in the bedroom...
They are SO much better than TV trays.
