The Tea House Cocktail Table

Hello and welcome to my blog. Typically in my blog I am documenting projects as I build them, detailing each part of the build. However, this table was built in it’s majority in fall 2015(before the blog).

In my family, both my side and my wife’s side, we gather in the living room (used almost exclusively for this purpose) to enjoy coffee or tea and dessert while we share our lives. This table, loosely inspired by a Ming Dynasty console table, was designed to accommodate those settings for a newer branch of my family. Hoping to encourage our generation to further the tradition and pass it along to the next.

This table is built in it’s majority of American black cherry, with wedges created in Honduran rosewood and Gaboon ebony.

I began the build by gluing up and dimensioning the top.  The top is supported by dovetailed in battens.

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The battens were cut in to make use of sliding dovetails which would fix the top to the supporting base but allow it to move with seasonal change in humidity.

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To finish the exposed dovetail connections, I plugged the dovetail housing with gaboon ebony plugs.

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I designed a set of wings, which would function very much like breadboard ends, to support the ends of the table while similarly allowing it to expand and contract with change in relative humidity.

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The trestle style base is connected to both the sliding dovetail battens and to the top itself.  The supporting posts are connected to the battens with simple bridle joints reinforced by four tenons would extend into the top.  The connection is then locked tightly with a tapering pin.

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The posts are supported by a stretcher which connects using a wedged through dovetail.

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Finally the feet are attached using simple bridle joints.

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The table was then disassembled and finished in shellac.  All surfaces were planed prior to shellacking.

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cherry coffee table trestle base

cherry coffee table trestle base

cherry coffee table trestle base

cherry coffee table trestle base handmade

Thank you for visiting my blog!  I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief recap of a prior build.