When you stop and think about it, we spend a good bit of our lives sitting at our dining tables. It is a place where family spends time together eating, doing homework, playing games, paying the bills and more. It is a valued place in most of our homes and for that reason, it makes some sense to have a quality table as the nexus of all this togetherness. This table project here is only 40" square, so it would not work for seating a big family. But it is perfect for an apartment — a mom, dad and a young one or two. When it’s time to progress to a larger dining table, move this one to a family room and voilà … you have a game table! One thing is certain: with its substantial white oak construction, this table will take the wear and tear of family life, perhaps for generations.
I mentioned that it is made from white oak lumber; the quartersawn stock is 1¼" thick for the tabletop, the legs are 2½" in section and the aprons are 3/4" thick. There are four corner braces hidden under the top that add significant strength to the piece. It is indeed built to last.
We borrowed the cloud lift motifs on the aprons and the gentle curves on the legs from the Greene brothers. It is not a Greene and Greene reproduction by any means, but their inspiration adds stylish details to this table’s relaxed design.
Templates are the Key to Success
Making multiple matching curved pieces like these legs and aprons is best done by employing templates to guide your cuts, be they on the band saw or with a guided router bit. Use the gridded drawings on page 29 or download and print out the same patterns in PDF
