Resizing furniture

[Adam Cavaliere]

Has anyone here ever had a request to resize a piece of furniture or just decided you made it too big and reduced it?

My wife is not happy with the size of our coffee table after having it for about 4 years. She wants something smaller since we have moved furniture around and introduced some new furniture into the living room.

I do not particularly want to go about creating anything new, or purchasing the wood to do so. Currently the table is mortise and tennon joined. It has a top that was screwed on from below and a shelf on the bottom that was attached in the corners via a slot in the leg.

I am thinking of:

1. Removing the top
2. Cutting the tennons and shelf off as close to the legs as possible
3. resizing everything down to the size she determines is "right"
4. reassembling
5. Refinishing

Are there any gotchas or things I need to consider?

[Todd Burch]

I've done this before. Sometimes I just make a new piece, but it's just "easier".

Scale is one thing to watch out for. If, for instance, the top was 1" thick in a larger size, it might look too thick in a smaller scale.

Make sure you don't make your top smaller and have a old screw hole in the middle of your cut.

I would strip while disassembled, and then just "finish" when reassembled.

Based on your approach, if, for example, the base rails use 1" tenons, and you cut them both off, be prepared for the base to be a minimum of 2" shorter than it is now.

[Tom Fischer]

This is why it is called "Precision Firewood".

Cheer up Adam, you've got loads of company.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I don't see any reason you cannot do what you outlined. I mean, after all, it is wood, so it can certainly be cut. Mortises filled with glued-in tenons can be recut - Lord knows I've done that bit before.

Tee it up.......You don't say how it is finished. I can envision some various finishes where it would not be necessary to refinish it...as long as you take care to avoid gouges while recutting, which can be done....as long as you have something where small surface scratches can be repaired. Plus - the underside of the top and shelf can take any level of damage you care to inflict on them....won't ever be seen anyway. Same for the underside/inside surfaces of rails and stretchers that support the top and shelf.

[Ryan Baker]

I've done that several times before. The practicality varies a lot with the design and construction method. What you describe sounds relatively simple and doable. Mortise and tenon joints lend themselves well to this type of rework.

[Troy Turner]

Don't see why you couldn't do it with you method described. Worst case scenario, you may have to make some new legs. But certainly a doable project.

[Kevin Bourque]

A friend of mine gave me a top of the line, solid cherry armoire/entertainment center because it was so large it took up too much room in their house.
It was built about 15 years ago when flat screen TV's didn't exist and measured 7' high x 42" wide x 30" deep.

I took it into my shop and carefully cut 14" off the back of the unit.
Then I replaced the back panel with a new one made from 1/4" lauan plywood.

When I had my friends over a few weeks later they didn't even recognize it until I pointed it out.
"Why didn't we just do that?" She said to him.
It actually looks like a beautiful piece of furniture now, and not an overlarge behemoth.