Side table in walnut

Project overview

Brief description: Side table in walnut
I made this side table for myself, and as you can see and may likely know, its in the style of George Nakashima’s minguren I style. I don’t know what it is but I love this design and form and style. So, I wanted to make one for myself, just to see if I could generally replicate the look and construction without it looking too much like a piece of crap.

The center support is a nice piece of walnut crotch with cool figuring. The top is a single slab of curly walnut about 1.75″ thick. Paid a pretty penny for that one. Thanks Dave! It had live edges on it which I removed. Not a fan of the live edge look for my personal pieces. The bottom support, the one on the ground, had a crack it in that I didn’t see right away but was able to repair it with some glue and clamps. As you can see, it holds some of my wooworking books in my office above the shop, of course.

Materials
- Primary wood species: Black walnut
- Finishes used: Tried and True Varnish Oil, five coats. Final topcoat of Tried and True Original Polymerized Linseed Oil/Beeswax
The center support has a about a 5 degree taper top to bottom and is joined to the top and bottom supports with what I’ll call shouldered bridle joints. The top is attached with 2 furniture bolts and threaded inserts through counterbored holes in the support. No need to worry about wood movement of the top since its just affixed in the center on each side.
Overall dimensions are 28″ high x 48″ wide x 14″ deep. The top has a 1/4″ round over on the top edget and 1/2″ chamfer on the bottom to ease the edges.
Timeline
- Project duration: ~ 3 or 4 days, give or take.

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