Dining Table and Chair

[Don C Peterson]

I'm planning on making a dining table and chairs. Here's what I've got, any comments or suggestions are welcome. The drawing isn't completely finished, I left off the expansion mechanism and some additional details like the supporting structure for the drop leaf supports because I'm just working on design and proportion right now. I also can't seem to figure out how to draw the chair seat which will be lightly padded and covered in dark brown leather (or that's what I have in mind at any rate). But I can't seem to create that slightly "pillowed" look in SketchUp...

The table has both drop leaves and expansion leaves so that it can be collapsed to seat just two taking minimal space, but expanded can fit 10 adults (6 very comfortably).

I'm planning on using QSWO with Walnut accents. I was going for something between G&G and Stickley...


DiningTable3-4.jpg DiningTable3-1.jpg Chair-2.jpg DiningTable3-3.jpg Straight Legs-5.jpg

[Jamie Buxton]

One way to get that pillowed look is the Follow Me tool. Make a shape which is the footprint of the seat. On one edge, make a profile which is what you'd like the seat's edge to look like. Select the footprint. Then hit the button for the Follow Me tool. Then single-click on the profile. It should run around the edge of the footprint. There may be a hole left in the middle of the seat, but you can fill that in by drawing a line along the edge of the hole.

[Don C Peterson]

Either my design is so good that nobody can imagine any improvements, or it's so bad that nobody can figure out how to save it...

As I looked at the design and talked about it with an architect friend we realized that the compound curve on the table corners seems a bit too formal/fancy for the rest of the set. That was the first design element that I came up with and try as I might I couldn't seem to find a way to carry that same idea into other parts of the table or chairs. So failing that, I just removed it.

Any thoughts?

DiningTableRoundEdge.jpg

[whit richardson]

Looks good actually. So It's Arts and Crafts style as I see the cloud lifts in the chairs and table supports. If you are looking more for the G&G look I'd incorporate the dark plugs and think about a Honey colored finish on the QSWO.

Review the ones made by the orginals too. It's okay to steal.

[Don C Peterson]

Thanks Whit, I'm planning on using Walnut for the drawbore plugs.

I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but since I wound up using a type of cloud lift in the legs and chairs, I figured I'd try it on the table top as well.

I think I like it. It has the advantage of being significantly easier to make too... and that's worth something.

DiningTableCloudLift.jpg

DiningTableCloudLift2.jpg

[whit richardson]

I haven't studied the G&G in super detail but I'm wondering if you should have some dark plugs at the tops of the chair sides too so their more consistent and bring the eye up the chair.