While this little taboret was a popular product coming out of the Roycrofters’ furniture shops back in the early 20th century, it doesn’t appear as a project plan very often these days. So we thought it was about time to offer our version with a unique cutout shape (an actual Roycroft taboret will have circular openings and no shelf). The table only requires about 15 board feet of 4/4 lumber, and you’ll have it built and finished in just a couple of weekends.
Preparing Six Project Panels
Select ¾"-thick stock to make four side panels for the taboret’s base, plus a top panel and a shelf. If you go “traditional” and use quartersawn white oak as I have here, try to compose your panels with a fairly balanced ray flake pattern so no single board calls more attention to itself. Watch for lighter areas along the edges of the boards, which often indicate sapwood. Sapwood will fume or stain much lighter than heartwood and will stand out like a sore thumb along a panel’s glue lines.
Glue and clamp each panel together. When that cures, plane or sand the seams flat. Rip and crosscut the six panels to their dimensions (see page 37). Then trim the four edges of
