Went to the library today and took out a book, "Arts and Crafts Furniture Anybody Can Make," by David Thiel, published in 2010.
The last project in the book is a hall table, seen in the pic below. The author shows photos of most steps of the build, and did it in solid poplar for all but the top, using birch ply for the top, edgebanded in birch. It is finished in satin black paint, and shows a little face graining on the solid poplar parts.
My Sketchup model shows it as it is in the book, with all parts 3/4" thickness. As the title of the book would suggest, all the joinery is simple and easy to do with the most basic of shop tools. Some pocket screws, through-screws, and double-ought figure-8 table-top fasteners.
I thought I might try this as a piece for our home, because we have other pieces that would go with it so well. But I cannot help myself; I want to try to improve on the design a little, and add some complexity to the joinery.
The author says his design came after seeing a photo of the table taken in Hill House, the Charles Renny Mackintosh masterpiece in Helensburg, Scotland. I found a photo, maybe the same one seen by David Thiel, and attached a clip here.
The original is bigger, length and width, and has a center drawer with a single knob pull. Its bottom stretcher array is a little closer to the floor, and the top looks to have a single curve at both long edges, rather than the half-fillets off a center straight, seen in the Sketchup model I did. My model is an exact scale take on the one in Mr Friel's book.
Searching the web, I found a couple versions of the table done by UK-based furniture makers, both of them scaled about the same as Thiel's, but having drawers, just like Charles Rennie doodled the original.
At first I thought, let's do it beefier, maybe all the leg and frame parts at 7/8", the top a full inch, but after seeing the photo of the original, and looking at a lot of the other stuff from Mr Mackintosh's hallucinations, I think the 3/4" thickness will be just right. And it sure will save money on the lumber needed.
Since I want it as a sofa table, sitting behind an 84" piece, I will want to stretch it from the 48-inch length of Mr Thiel. I'll try it at maybe 60 inches, the side legs moved out only three inches per side, the rest of the stretch being an additional three inches of end overhang.
I'll do a single curve to each long edge of the top, per the Mackintosh, and maybe broaden the base a little, to get the legs further out front and back.
And I will do a drawer per the original, but have not thought out yet how to frame it for sliding.
The stretchers, in Mr Thiel's version, are fixed to the legs, screws being driven through the face of the legs, the screws sunk and plugged. Not a bad solution for a painted job, but I think I want to see the wood, and thus may either through-tenon, like the UK furniture-makers show in their versions, or do blind dominos.
The original has the three-square hole deco in the legs with much larger squares that David Thiel's version, and I like the smaller holes.
If you are a Sketchup user, you can see my model by downloading it from the 3D Warehouse. Search "hall table arts and crafts" and you will find it.
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