TV table, coffee table, side table, what ever you need.

About two years ago my friend (some of you know her as Penny Lane) purchased a home theater system. Unfortunately she did not have a piece of furniture to put it on, so we went shopping for something that was attractive, affordable and non obtrusive. We didn't have much luck, either it was ugly, too big, or too expensive, but we did get some ideas. Unbeknownst to her, I got to work.
















I had to work fast, I didn't want her to have the opportunity to buy a piece. First thing I needed to do was get measurements (TV and stereo system) and also figure out the optimal TV viewing height. After getting all the info that I needed I quickly designed the piece. Next, I had to figure out what type of wood? I am a big fan of Walnut and Ms. Lane was becoming one too, so it made sense.

Walnut would be the primary wood, but I wanted to mix it up. It is a pretty simple piece but it needed a little something to make it stand out. Zebrawood was the answer, it has texture, it's warm like the walnut, and it would not over power the piece. Two days later, the piece was built and all I had to do was finish it.















Well, Penny loves her TV table and it seems to receive many accolades, this brings me to a question. As you've noticed the title includes more than just this table, my thought is to base my first line of furniture from this piece. What do you think? There could be different wood combinations as well. I would appreciate any thoughts.

Filing Cabinet

Here it is, the Walnut filing cabinet that goes with the desk. There are two pull-out drawers on top (later on that) and the sliding doors below which hide the pull-out hanging file drawers. The doors are book-matched and are also matched to the top of the piece.















With the door open you can see two of the four legal sized hanging file drawers, these drawers are also book-matched. Above, are the pull-out drawers, look closely and you will notice the facade matches up (this is one board cut just in the right place) the circle pattern is where a branch was attached to the tree. I used Bloodwood for the Bow-Tie handles which ties in nicely with the desk.

Next is the top, after French polishing it with twelve coats the piece has great depth (it looks like you could reach into the wood). Notice the oval pattern (again where a branch would have been attached to the tree). As I mentioned before if you look at the first picture you will see the same pattern in the sliding door. (it is the same piece of wood)















The drawers frames are made from cherry, and are joined with half-blind dovetails. I used a router on these because of how many were needed (typically I hand cut all my joinery).














If you look closely, you can see one more detail that I added, walnut book-matched drawer bottoms (yeah, a little over the top).