Modern platform bench

Given the popularity of mid-century modern furniture, Tom Silva sensed a great Build It opportunity when his son showed him a reissue of the George Nelson platform bench. Tom saw that the clean lines of the elegant 1946 design were achieved with straightforward woodworking techniques: the bench top’s half-lapped strips would be easy work for a table saw and router. The legs’ trapezoidal shape might pose more of a challenge, but loose-tenon joinery could take care of that.

Instead of the birch used in the original, Tom chose to make the bench