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Thread: Somethings just can't be rushed...

  1. #1
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    Somethings just can't be rushed...

    In 95 my lovely wife Mic and I went to Porta Vallarta for Christmas and New Years (We flew in on a whim hoping we could get a place to crash...). Mic wanted to bring something back for the house so we went to a tile shop and bought the tiles in the first picture. We've been dragging them around the world in the same box they were originally packed in, complete with the Porta Vallarta Semanal Noticias wrapped around each tile for the past 18 years. They've lived in a tiny rusting tin and extremely hot shed for the past 9 years, I'm surprised the box and news papers haven't rotted away, until about 2 weeks ago when I happened upon them and thought I need to do something with these… I've been making shutters for the house lately and have had a bit of extra pine laying around so what better to do than make a coffee table… I wanted it to have a Mexican flavour so in my usual style I google imaged mexican coffee table and spent a few minutes looking at the various pictures that popped onto my screen. Then I went to the shop and tried to make what I took from that time… For the most part I think t turned out pretty good. When I look at it I know there's something not quite right with it but I can't put my finger on it quite yet - any ideas. Not that I can change it now though but I'm still interested in what you may think didn't quite work. In the second pic the legs look too long but in reality they are pretty much where they want to be…

    The construction is completely neander, and the finish is about 10 coats of orange shellack with a dark wax buff. To add a bit of a story I gave it a bit of a beating between coats with a dark stain to bring out the dents… The secondary wood for the drawer sides, back and bottom is something I scrounged from a reno job of a circa 1880s house I was doing but have no idea what it is. It looks like a mahogany but I really have no idea.

    At the very least it put a smile on Mic's face, during a difficult time, to see the tiles being used, she had written them off years ago and thought they were forever lost in one of the moves. I don't think she even knew they had been carted all the way down here...

    Edit: now that I look at it, it looks like the table needs to be longer and maybe a bit wider. It almost looks top heavy. But the constraints of the tiles limited the over all foot print.
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    Last edited by Brian Ashton; 02-01-2014 at 8:50 AM.
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  2. #2
    It's tough to tie something together that you don't usually see and then get the comfortable feeling that you'd get looking at fine 200 year-old furniture.

    I think it looks pretty good. If anything, I would add some sort of edge detail to the top and maybe make it a little less thick looking at the edge, nothing fancy, maybe an ogee or something oriented straight at anyone standing or sitting near it, and generally thin the rest down down a little (thinner legs, etc, maybe change out the knob for casted hardware). Possibly set the tile into the table just barely (like a millimeter or two) to make it look like it's in the table instead of on it, but not so much that you'd lose any of the detail on the sides.

    But honestly, if it were in my house, I wouldn't change it - you can always look at something later and see incremental changes you'd like. It's tough to make coffee tables look good because they're so short.

    The tile is really cool, though.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by David Weaver View Post
    It's tough to tie something together that you don't usually see and then get the comfortable feeling that you'd get looking at fine 200 year-old furniture.

    I think it looks pretty good. If anything, I would add some sort of edge detail to the top and maybe make it a little less thick looking at the edge, nothing fancy, maybe an ogee or something oriented straight at anyone standing or sitting near it, and generally thin the rest down down a little (thinner legs, etc, maybe change out the knob for casted hardware). Possibly set the tile into the table just barely (like a millimeter or two) to make it look like it's in the table instead of on it, but not so much that you'd lose any of the detail on the sides.

    But honestly, if it were in my house, I wouldn't change it - you can always look at something later and see incremental changes you'd like. It's tough to make coffee tables look good because they're so short.

    The tile is really cool, though.
    Ya I think you're on it, especially the knob. I was thinking about making a copper post and rail handle but I ran out of enthusiasm for it and took the easy road and spat out a cheap pine knob…

    I did think about carving some detail into the top, like an egg and dart pattern of sorts but all the pics I viewed showed no carving so again took the easy road…

    It's sitting about 10 feet away at the moment and now I'm thinking it looks a bit too leggy. Needed to be a bit wider and longer. Don't think I could have gotten away with shorter legs though.
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  4. #4
    Yeah, definitely not shorter legs. Maybe just a bit thinner. Longer and wider would have the same effect, too. I like it. When people say something about a table with tile on the top (which is a go-to of commodity furniture around here), you'd not expect to see something as nice and visually interesting.

  5. #5
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    I agree it's a wee bit on the chunky side, but what a great reminder of that spontaneous trip almost 20 years ago.

  6. #6
    find a nice big ceramic white knob with a drawn figured design in a fine detail with the matching colors of the tiles
    that will take the eye away from the chunky look by having a nice contrast
    I M H O , that's a great piece , just needs a knob
    Mike >............................................/ Maybe I'm doing this Babysitting Gig to throw off the Authorities \................................................<

  7. #7
    As a Mexican, I wholeheartedly approve of this piece Very nicely done.

    At my house I have my grandmother's old living room furniture, and it is of a similarly fat/chunky style with turned legs. The knobs in drawers are simple pretzel-like hardware from a blacksmith.

    Puerto Vallarta is a nice town. I'm glad you went there. Now make some seafood and serve it on that table - I guarantee it will taste amazing

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    Quote Originally Posted by Federico Mena Quintero View Post
    As a Mexican, I wholeheartedly approve of this piece Very nicely done.

    At my house I have my grandmother's old living room furniture, and it is of a similarly fat/chunky style with turned legs. The knobs in drawers are simple pretzel-like hardware from a blacksmith.

    Puerto Vallarta is a nice town. I'm glad you went there. Now make some seafood and serve it on that table - I guarantee it will taste amazing
    Thx Mate. Glad I was able to capture the essence.

    Ya we loved it enough to go back again a few months later. We used to line up, with all the other gringos at the International House of Pancakes every morning. On our second trip I was able to convince the airline to let me bring a 5' x 1' x 4" thick chunk of Coco Bolo back as checked luggage. Coco Bolo was the only words the lumber yardman and myself had in common, cost me 270 pesos… Canada customs tried to X-ray it but it they couldn't see through it so they let me keep it - heck of a score. Happened upon a place just up the coast called Rincon de Guayabitos and really loved that place. But sadly we haven't been back since.

    Ya I think a big plate of shrimp would look good on it.
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  9. #9
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    Guess I was influenced by your saying you wanted a Mexican look but the legs struck me as thick and muscular. Your table looks like a bull who became a table. It is always a pleasure to see something that is good looking yet a little different from the others.

  10. #10
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    Love the tile set, beautiful. I also like the table, but think the whole package would be much improved if the tiles were set within a wood frame, so the tiles and wood would be coplanar.

    BTW, we lived in San Blas, Nayarit for 1.5 years in '76-77, and traveled around a bit on that trip (on motorcycles from DC to San Blas via Canada), as well as on two other trips there; and I never found a piece of Mexican made furniture that was comfortable, even though a lot of it looked OK. But things change.
    Last edited by Jack Curtis; 02-03-2014 at 1:35 AM.

  11. Great work! I like it as it is. A different knob might help, a bit of this or that might lighten it up, but I think it's more than fine like it is. Thanks for the pictures and the story!

  12. #12
    I agree with Will. It looks great as is. It is different, but everything works for a reason. I especially like that the wood and tile on the top are not even since it looks like some of the tile you had was edge banding. That banding adds a nice "framing" effect to the tile.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert G Brown View Post
    Guess I was influenced by your saying you wanted a Mexican look but the legs struck me as thick and muscular. Your table looks like a bull who became a table. It is always a pleasure to see something that is good looking yet a little different from the others.

    That's funny but now you mention it I can see the bull in the legs. Maybe I need to hang some dangly bits of the back like whats on a bull.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Will Boulware View Post
    Great work! I like it as it is. A different knob might help, a bit of this or that might lighten it up, but I think it's more than fine like it is. Thanks for the pictures and the story!

    That knob seems to be a bit of a bone of contention with my wife also. She thinks it's too big also but I'm not seeing that. However I do think I need to find something that is wrought iron maybe a ring pull of sorts.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jack Curtis View Post
    Love the tile set, beautiful. I also like the table, but think the whole package would be much improved if the tiles were set within a wood frame, so the tiles and wood would be coplanar.
    I thought hard about that but I wanted to depart from the predictable there and use a boarder that raised the tiles. Also, because we bought the edge tiles, damn it we were going to use them... Personally I think that part worked well.
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