We got a new couch and love seat for our living room recently but we’re not able to find a set of tables that went well with the new furniture. Eventually we found a set that would have run us about a thousand dollars each for the three pieces we wanted. I then suggested I could build them for that if I had a shop and some new tools. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. I had not done any real woodworking since I left high school in the mid seventies so my wife really had confidence in my abilities when she agree to the project. I designed the tables first and with the drawings in hand got final approval from my wife. I then bought all the wood, put up an 8’x10′ shed in the backyard, ran power and air to it and then added a couple of tools to my inventory I would need to do the job. The result is these three mission style tables made from red oak with mortise and tenon joinery, including through mortises on all the legs. The tops are all multiple pieces laminated in a number of glue-ups. They are all hand stained, the reason I would love a sprayer kit, and top coated with polyurethane for the durability needed in a coffee table application. My wife says they remind her of a table at her grandparent’s house (that’s a good thing). I am currently building two bookshelves to match and help defer the cost of the extra tools and the workshop.

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