I had planned one more entry for my round table series, but after several attempts at my last idea, I just can’t seem to make it work. Maybe I’ll revisit it at a later date. Moving on, I present a wood-crossed coffee table:
This table arose from a simple idea that got refined with every iteration. Originally, it was a simple cross:
But it eventually made its way through several small changes before arriving at the first picture.
I felt like the original drawing was too bulky, so I added the inner cross to the center of the piece – as seen in sketch 1. After drawing it, it looked flimsy and would be a huge P.I.T.A. to build, because those inner squares are separate from the outer wings. With those two thoughts in mind, I came up with sketch 2 – where I clipped the inner corners and widened the inner cross. I really like how that design balanced the piece, so much that it is the direction I went with the SketchUp drawing atop this post. I drew sketch 3 to make sure that I hadn’t made a mistake making the inner cross wider. I just needed the visual confirmation to confirm my choice. Sketch 4 contains the same cross as sketch 2, but rather than straight edged wings, I’ve made them curved. My wife definitely likes that version best and I might as well. I thought about drawing #4 in SketchUp, but I felt that the straight edge piece would be easier (and quicker). If nothing else, sketch 4 gives me some closure to the round table series.
I think the only thing I’d experiment with would be to make the 4 lighter pieces symmetrical. Normally I’m not a big fan of symmetrical but the rest of the design almost calls for it.
It looks just a little unbalanced to me this way.
Overall I do like the design.
Are you referring to the center of the piece? When I drew it up, the two main axis are exactly the same, with a half lap joint connecting them. I guess that does make this appear to be 3 pieces instead of two.
Would you suggest 4 double miters coming to a point in the true center (like an X)? Maybe some kind overlay/focal point that hides that joint?
Yes.
I could see either an X in the center, or perhaps a non-wood accent to make the joint a non-issue.
Maybe, if you were daring, a square set at right angles to the current square look in the center. What I’m seeing is that the 4 lighter pieces would have a “bird mouth” that fits around the square in the center.
Just thinking out loud here – if you made the center bit glass/frosted glass and put a light in there you could have some mood lighting for the room
A tile piece maybe? Like a ceramic Spanish floor tile? Sort of like this: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/322649801/rough_surface_rustic_floor_tiles.html
At any rate, this is just quibbling – overall the design is very nice.