I started out by making a scale model of the table. The hayrake stretcher and diagonally aligned legs were the elements I was most concerned about.
Nothing beats a full-sized mock-up to get a good sense of how a finished piece will look. But sometimes it’s impractical or impossible to make a large scale mock-up. I recently ran into this problem when fine tuning a hayrake table design. I had never built this style of table before and there are a lot of variations on this traditional design. The table also requires some pretty thick lumber, so I wanted to get it right before I cut into my stock.
I started out with a scale model of the table held together with hot glue. I thought it looked pretty cool, but I was concerned that it might look too heavy at full scale. Also there was some interesting joinery challenges in the stretcher system that I wanted to iron out so I took the mock-up process one step further by building one end of the table base at full size.
Now that I had a scale model and a partial full-sized mock-up, I decided to see how the table would fit in our dining room. I handled this with a digital camera and a little Photoshop magic.
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I started out by making a scale model of the table. The hayrake stretcher and diagonally aligned legs were the elements I was most concerned about.
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So far so good. I liked the general proportions but still has some questions about the joinery details.
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Going full size. I built a rough mock up of one end of the table base to get an idea of the mass of the table at full scale. Also, it was a chance to brainstorm the joinery and order of assembly. I used a hollow chisel mortiser for the mortises and roughed out the tenons with a bandsaw and handsaw. It took about an hour to knock it out, but I expect to spend quite a bit more time building the real thing.
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I was able to play with the leg thickness and bevel width as well as the chamfers on the stretcher parts. The diagonal orientation of the legs make them appear much beefier than they really are. I ended up thinning them up quite a bit.
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Photographing a partial mock-up- step 1.
I set a camera up on a tripod to maintain a consistent view for all of the shots. This allowed me to build a composite image from various photographs. The first shot is of the original table. I'll use it's top as the top for the mock up.
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Photographing a scale mock-up Step 1. With the camera in the same position as before, I shot the space without the table. I'll use this shot as a background for the scale-mock-up composite.
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Step 2. I marked the table location on the floor and set the partial mock-up in place. I held a piece of plywood in place to create realistic shadows for the top that will be added later.
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Step 3. I flipped the base around to create the rear legs.
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Step 4. In Photoshop, I combined the two base photos with the top from the original table. It's pretty rough, but it offers another idea of how the finished table might look. The dimensions and thickness of the top are way off, but I'm not concerned about that right now. To me, the base is still looking a little too heavy, but it's nice to know it now rather than after the table is built.
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Step 2. I photographed the mock up from the same approximate view. This was difficult because it required moving the camera in order to fill the frame with the mock up. I placed paper under the model to make it easier to outline in Photoshop later. It also provided an idea of how the shadow on the floor would look.
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Step 3. I combined the photo of the scale mock-up with the empty room as a back ground. I airbrushed a quick shadow to help ground the table. It's a little more difficult to get the exact scale right and the effect is not quite as realistic, but it also provides a rough idea of the final product.
Comments
Very interesting concept.
This is very cool ... i have come close to using this technique, and we do a lot of stuff with photoshop and mockups, but for me the missing piece that you have included is taking a photo of the empty space ...
Here's one of ours using models in a modeled room mockup
http://dorsetcustomfurniture.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-design-project.html
Dan-
The room mock up is a very cool idea. I've built multiple pieces for a room in the past and that would have come in handy. It allows a little more flexibility than the photoshop method when it comes to moving pieces around or changing out elements.
MIke
The base may be heavy as it stands, but that can be off set by a heavier top, larger top, skirt boards, some kind of stretcher high up that wouldn't interfere with knees.
I like the base enough to make changes in the top to balance it.
Nice design! Plan or drawing for building this table? Dimensions?
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