The Couch Table Project Is Completed!

It's been a difficult week trying to force myself to work on any projects while I was at home.  Not that the projects I am currently working on have given me any grieve or the fact that I have lost interest in them.  The weather here in the Midwest has finally given me and everyone else just perfect conditions to be outside to enjoy better weather than we've seen over the past couple of months at least.  Bright, warm and sunny have been the words that best describe the weather for the past week.  But even with all of that going on I have managed to put the finishing touches to my couch table project over the past couple of days.  (In between long motorcycle rides of course.)

So with this post I thought I would let everyone get caught up on this project and pass along detailed information about how I put it all together. 

This is a photo of all the wooden parts that were needed to create the little couch table. All of the wood was select pine.  I choose this as it is very inexpensive and the wood is nice and straight without any knots in it.  Also pine is a very easy wood to work with so it was an simple choice to make.  

Starting in the upper right corner is the top of the table which measures 16" x 20".  This had to be pieced together using 1 X 6's and a 1 X 4 and pocket holes to get the dimensions I wanted.  I used my Kreg pocket hole jig to make the mounting holes and assemble the top together.

Next to that are the two cross supports for the table. These are 1 X 4's 20" long.  Below the table top are the two legs of the table.  Again 1 X 4's 25.5" long.  The smaller piece to the right of the legs is a 1 X 2 X 18.5" long piece that already has the pocket holes drilled into the ends of the part.  Lastly are the four tapered pieces that make up the feet and table supports for the project.  Again these parts are 1 X 4's that are 15.25" long.  They are all tapered down to 1 1/2" tall on the ends with a nice radius to finish them off.  These parts also needed pocket holes as shown so that they could be mounted correctly in the assembly.

As I did not have an assistant to help me hold the leg and table support assemblies together while installing the mounting screws for it I created this simple little jig out of scrap wood.  Just a few wood screws to hold it all together did the trick nicely.

Here I have one end of the leg assembly mounted into the jig and ready to be screwed together.  I put the pocket holes on the outside of the assembly so that the screws when installed would not split the end face of the cross member. If the parts were reversed the pocket holes would be on the inside of course and also point the screws in the wrong direction causing problems when assembling the parts together. 

Here is what the leg and table top supports looked like once the parts had been assembled.  The little jig did the trick nicely as installing the pocket hole screws went very smoothly.

Here the table has been completely assembled.  The upper table top support assembly and the leg assemblies have been mounted to the legs of the table.  This was just a matter of squaring things up so the table sat nice and flat on the floor and screwing in four mounting screws at each of the upper and lower positions where the assemblies mated up to the legs of the table.  With the screws for the assembly on the inside of the table the outside legs covered up the pocket holes on the outside of the assembly giving the table a very nice clean look that works very well.  The table top itself was then slid into place on top of the upper supports  and held in place using 1-1/2" metal "L" brackets and wood screws from the underside of the table.  Again this way I could keep everything nice and clean looking on the outside surfaces of the table. 

The last few steps to finish off the table were just a matter of sanding everything nice and smooth and then applying a stain and three or four coats of varnish.  I was not sure about the finish on the project until I had put the first couple of coats of varnish on the table.  Then I stepped back, took a good look and put my seal of approval on the project. 

It will be a nice addition to my living room when I want to sit down and watch TV while eating dinner or playing on my laptop.  Total cost for the little table came to around $30.  A far cry from the $100+ table I had stumbled across last Christmas and it will serve my purposes just as well. 

One last little thing that I need to do with the table while I am writing this is to add some small felt pads to the bottom of it so that I won't scratch up my hardwood floor when I am moving it around on the floor.   So my efforts once again have been worth the time spent to create this little table.