After unsuccessfully looking for a table for the foyer for some time, I decided to make one (yah, I'm pretty picky). In the past, we had a tiny foyer (about 5' square and no closet) and we used to come in and put things down on a stereo speaker, which was just outside the foyer in the living room. The speaker is a fairly large floor-standing unit about 36" high, and was pretty convenient as a drop-off point. For this reason, I decided to base the table height on that of the speaker. We also have an arts-and-crafts style dining room table made from Cherry (bought, not home-made) and the foyer table was made with similar design features. Of course, you would need eyes like a chameleon's to see both the tables at the same time, but what the heck, I liked the design. The design features included the beveled top, square legs and black inlaid trim and feet. I made a few changes such as curving the trim and the skirt pieces, and giving the legs a curved taper instead of a straight taper as on the dining room table.
The table worked out fairly well, except that the Cherry I used is very light in colour, and has darkened little since it was made. I included a shelf since the rather long legs looked pretty spindly all by themselves.
The inlay is African Blackwood. I made lengths just over 1/8" square to fit into 1/8" routed slots. I then tapered the edges of the inlay pieces at a small angle so they would wedge into the slots to eliminate any gaps. The ends were shaped as necessary (and tapered as well) and then after glue was applied, the pieces were tapped into the slots with a small hammer. The surface of the piece was then sanded to bring the inlay flush with the surrounding wood.
| Material: | Cherry with African Blackwood inlay and feet |
| Finish: | 5 (legs) to 7 (top) coats Miniwax Wipe-on Poly, Clear Satin |
| Size: | 36" h x 14" w x 14" d |
| Done: | March 3, 2005 |
