Synopsis: A comprehensive article on building a contemporary cherry settee, including a detailed project plan, tips on shaping and assembly, techniques for making a story stick that does double duty as a leg template, and a section on weaving a traditional reed seat.

I can’t draw well, but it’s never kept me from trying—on newspapers, leases, whatever happens to be in front of me. Andwhen I needed a coffee table, I was drawing them everywhere. One design began on a Post-it note while I was on the phone—which may explain, in retrospect, its odd transformation. When one table leg turned out a little canted, I drew another line off the back, making it a chair. Then when I tried to turn the chair-like doodle into a perspective drawing, the lines were too long—yet further proof that I can’t draw. But when I looked back down, my coffee table had turned…