Lift Top Coffee Table

Hello,

This is my first furniture project in over 18 years, it is a lift top coffee table made for my wife's birthday. It is made of red oak stained with minwax golden oak to match her other oak furniture, finished with 4 coats of water based gloss poly applied with HVLP. I used a combination of bisquits, mortise and tennon and pocket hole joints. It has one large deep drawer and two small cabinet doors with additional storage under the top. The lift hardware is from Lee Valley. This table also has a hidden storage compartment not shown in the pictures.
It has interchangeable tiles in the top so they can be changed to match the furniture or other accessory items. There are a couple more pictures in my album in my profile.

Let me know what you think.

This is my own design and is larger than most coffee tables, dimensions are 34x60x19 she loves it so much that she has instructed to make end tables to match. (And that in my mind gives me an excuse to buy more wood working tools with no complaints from her.)

That's some impressive work. I'm a big fan of mission style, and I love it when a piece is packed with functionality and still nice to look at.

This is just personal preference, but it almost seems overbuilt for a mission piece. I'm referring to some of the style touches - the mitered corners on the top and the use of raised panel doors. It's great work and something I'd be hard pressed top match, but seems to depart from the simplicity that (to me, anyway) makes mission style so appealing.

One more thing - did you use a wood filler on the oak? I'm thinking you must have, 'cos it's hard to keep those Minwax stains from blotching on untreated wood. I'd be interested in knowing some of the details on how it was finished.

Although it may tend to look like a mission piece, that was not my intention. It was designed to be functional and a one of a kind custom piece. Although there were many pieces, it is surprisingly solid.

The finish started with natural red oak sanded to 220, no filler - then min-wax golden oak stain applied with a foam brush and wiped dry within about 30 minutes, dried overnight, wiped again, then sprayed 2 coats of Cabot water-based sanding sealer - dried overnight, then knocked it all down with 220, wiped with a good tack-cloth and sprayed 3 light coats of Cabot water-based poly (gloss) with a 2 hour wait between coats, then the final coat was just a heavy (wet) coat of the same. Dried 24 hours and moved it into the house for assembly.

Thanks again for the comments

Wow, that's one nice piece. LOML been after me to build her a coffee table, may have to steal some of your design/ideas.

Did you just use tiles for inlays on the top? How did you fasten them in (what type of glue/cement)? Any special prep if you used cement?

Feel free to use any ideas you like, the tiles are not fastened in place, they are simply laying inside a 1/4" rabbit all the way around. I did put a little hot glue in the corners of a few because the tiles are not all flat and it keeps them from rocking. The hot glue will simply peel off the poly without removing any finish. My thoughts on using the tile was to give the wife and the table the ability to change with the fashions (such as new furniture or floor coverings - just replace the tile to compliment the room) Did I mention she loves it? I feel like I could get away with anything around here for a little while anyways.

Jeff

Nice project and very useful as well. My bother in law has a table with this feature and loves it.

Jeff,

That is a fantastic piece. I love the idea of the lift top. You said there's hardware for it. How does the lift top work exactly? I'm really interested in it.

Craig, the lift mechanism is basically two square metal frames attached by two folding supports with a coil spring inside two of the supports. You can look in the Lee Valley catalog or go to their website and search for lift top table mechanism.

Jeff

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jeff Cockrum

Hello,

Let me know what you think.

This is my own design and is larger than most coffee tables, dimensions are 34x60x19 she loves it so much that she has instructed to make end tables to match. (And that in my mind gives me an excuse to buy more wood working tools with no complaints from her.)

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This is my favorite part about SWMBO projects, the unknowing approval of new tool purchases!:D:D

Very nicely done...

Sarge..