project coffee table

objective:
so it was christmas '05! and along with that comes the stress of what to get for jennie. usually, when it comes to gifts, i’m financially bound, but creatively, i’m free to explore. and by financially bound, i just really mean i’m cheap. and since jennie always needed a coffee table for her living room, and since a decent coffee table runs around $75 or up, and since i’m cheap, i’m gonna make one! i mean, how hard can it be to slap a few slabs of wood and post together! duct tape holds everything!

challenges/procedure:
after sitting in jennie’s living room long enough to ‘feel’ out a decent size, i sketched up a rough design on cadd. i’m sure jennie has wondered every now and then why i sit in her living room alone, mumbling dimensions to myself, and putting my hand out in the air to weigh out an imaginary height for the table. she didn’t really have much of a clue that i was building this anytime soon, and definitely not for xmas. so it’s all a surprise you see, along with me jumping out of that cake in a bunny suit. hmm, i should’ve stopped at hello.
moving along…..two 2’x4’x3/4” ply taken right of the shelf of home depot. four mail box posts (4”x4”) cut at 15” height, and don’t rely on that home depot guy to do it exact. at least that one dude in jersey city was either high or buzzed…or just dumb. you can’t really tell what it really is here. and iterating several times to him that “it’s a coffee table that you’re making, and that you would prefer it not to wobble” didn’t seem to help much. i tell you, it must be in our water?!
Again, moving along…after screwing everything together and giving it a good sanding, I continued on with 2 layers of stain, and finished off with 2-3 layers of polyurethane.

features:
i tell you, wright was talking to me. no i’m not schizophrenic, but i did hear voices. with the help of my friend, mr. saw table, i was able to make some linear groove details on the table surface. the idea was sketched out since cadd, but to see it come together helped me create it more progressively. it’s symbolic of a “ribbon” wrapped around a gift, get it? and at that very corner was where i actually did place a big red bow tie.
in addition, the “double deck” table allows for storage of magazines and other stuff you usually want to take off the surface, say a remote control, etc.

summary:
the reveal had jennie by surprise. i unveiled it in front of her house, topped with a big red bow tie, and a dozen of roses in hand. Forget the Lexus, this was a December to remember!
project coffee table: pass!