Alexa Drake

Coffee-Table

I spent a long time debating what features I wanted on a coffee table. By the time I decided to start building, though, I was unemployed and not eager to spend money on materials, so I restricted my design to the materials that I had in my garage at the time.

It's built mostly of red-oak, with some pine and what Lowe's calls paint-grade panels making up the top; I originally bought the panels to serve as the full-size matress-platform for the bed-frame I built a couple of years prior and the scraps--they came about twenty inches longer than I needed--had been collecting dust ever since.

I had only enough one-by-two stock to make two legs (the one-by-two beneath the shelf was in rough shape and wasn't fit to be visible in the finished product), so the design took an asymetric turn, which I leaned into with the shelf, which currently holds some of my art-supplies and reference-books (a recurring theme as I revisit my furniture-building process is enabling my hobbies, and I think that's great). This project is one of those that reminds me that restrictions inspire creativity.

The quality of the paint-grade panels is pretty poor, but it works. If I ever need--or want--something nicer, though, I can replace it without any trouble.