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Arts & Crafts Coffee Table with Story-Book Charm

With an understated shelf, beveled through-tenons, and stretchers shaped at the ends to corbel-like curves, this coffee table evokes the traditional Arts and Crafts style without being too serious.

By John Hartman #289-May/June 2021 Issue

Arts and Crafts coffee table with story-book charm

Synopsis: With an understated shelf, beveled through-tenons, and stretchers shaped at the ends to corbel-like curves, this coffee table evokes the traditional Arts and Crafts style without being too serious. The split panel and its curving cutouts bring a bit of whimsy to the design. Stub tenons on the shelf-to-rail joinery help deal with the issue of cross-grain construction. The legs are slightly splayed, giving the table a solid stance.

My artist wife and I love Arts and Crafts furniture, and our recent move to a new home motivated us to design and build pieces in this classic style. We both liked Kevin Rodel’s Limbert-inspired coffee table (FWW #252) with its theme of gridwork and square cutouts, but we felt that the design was a bit too bold to live well with the other furnishings in our living room. We adopted the rough format of his table and the tilt…

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Comments

RJLII | Apr 08, 2021 07:54am | #1
Really nice work here. I love the finish.
mcecala | Apr 10, 2021 06:17pm | #2
Are the plans available for this yet?
TomCarter | Apr 13, 2021 04:34pm | #3
this is fun to see... I did a similar thing, basing my design on a simplified version of Limbert's coffee table.
AlaskaJohn | Apr 24, 2021 02:44pm | #4
John, thanks for a great project! When the FWW issue arrived, my wife saw the picture on the cover and said, "Make this for me!" HA! So, I'll be starting on this soon.

Can you help with the specific gel stains you used after the sealing and fuming? I've had more trouble with staining/finishing than all the other aspects of woodworking combined! Ha!

Thanks again, John!

John
user-3106223 | Jun 12, 2021 01:00pm | #5
Where can I find the plans to download for this project? I've searched your website and have not seen it. Thanks. George