Dining Room Table

Here is a first for me. This is the very first dining room table I have ever built. I was a little nervous about taking on this project but am so glad I did it. It was a lot of fun and and super challenging. I learned a lot building it.

The whole thing is built out of pine. The top is strips glued together, planed and sealed. I notched the legs together and joined them with the center beam. I used a wood dowel to hold the whole thing together. You can see a detail of that below.

When my wife and I started talking about this project we had several different design ideas. We both really wanted to have the top be the strips of wood but the legs were hard to agree on. I liked the look of older farm house style table legs, more rustic, and she preferred a more modern look. I feel like i found a nice medium of the two aesthetics. I enhanced it by staining the legs different from the top.

One thing we both really wanted with our new table was a bench for seating. I am a big fan of the bench seating at tables. I tried to emulate the table style with the bench but wanted it to be different enough to be an accent not a match. You can push the bench all the way under the table. The legs of the bench go right over the legs of the table.

I'm really pleased with the how this piece turned out. I look forward to building another one soon. Any one in the market for a new dining room table?

The Candice End Table

     I made this piece for my wife. Once again, bulk trash day has been a gold mine for me this year. When I found this was literally in pieces. It had a laminate over the whole thing that was almost entirely peeled off. 

The first thing I did was remove the gross laminate and give it a good cleaning. Removing the old dry laminate glue was an adventure. A few coats of paint later and now my wife has a brand new end table in her favorite colors. 


I have gotten a lot of good feedback from this little piece. I am going to start to design my own version of this end table. I love the idea of multiple levels. Fixing this up was fun and has given me a lot of new ideas for future projects. 

Dresser to Record Shelf

My Wife has been asking me to build a new shelf for our records and record player for a while now. I figured moving into our new home was as good a time as any to build some new furniture. I wanted to make something that emulated 70's style furniture. I played around with a few designs but nothing really struck me. One day while I was walking my dogs I passed a house with several old pieces of furniture on the curb. I saw this dresser with six beat up drawers. It was old, dirty, dilapidated and 70's as hell.  I loaded it in my truck and brought it home and started working on it that day.

The first thing I had to do was get rid of the drawers. After I took them out as well as removing the back panel I was able to give it a thorough cleaning. I'm not sure how long it lived on the side walk but it dirt and bugs made me thing it had been there for quite a long time.

After cleaning I installed a shelf on the top and one of bottom out of some scraps of plywood I had lying around. For a nicer look I used a couple pieces of oak as fascia for the upper shelf. Once the shelves were installed I started sanding. This was the longest step in the whole process.

The top of the dresser was white laminate. I was initially going to remove it and make a new wood top but I had an idea to stain the whole piece a very dark color and leave the top bright white. I think it turned out great. I stained and polyed the wood and bleached the hell out of the top.


There you have it, a brand new 70's style record shelf. I used the two upper cubbies for my stereo and cd player and the lower shelf for our records.
The whole project took about a week and I am very happy with the way it turned out. Bulk trash week has been a bit of a gold mine for me this year.

Entertainment Center

In a previous post I shared some pictures of a piece of furniture in progress. Well, here is the finished piece!

this entertainment center is made from found and salvaged wood. The only things purchased where the drawer slides (new) and the drawer pull which I found at City Wide Garage sale here in Austin.

I decided to give it an aged white-wash look. The shelves and the two front panels at the bottom where previously stained. I liked contrast of the light white-washed wood with the dark stain so I decided to keep them how they were.

This was a fun piece to build. It was definitely a challenge finding enough materials to complete it. For a little while I thought I may have to purchase some wood but came across some bits and pieces that some friends were getting rid of.

The idea for this came out of how much I disliked my old entertainment center. It was very short, did not have a lot of storage space and was just a cheap pre-made bit of garbage we purchased at an enormous chain that will remain nameless. The lower drawer is not very deep or shallow but is very wide. It is perfect for video and dvd storage.

Reclaimed Oak Stool

I recently did the finishing touches on a stool/ end table I have been working on. The top of it was made a while ago but I was having trouble making a choice about the direction this piece would go. Initially I was planning on making an end table with a lower shelf. Then I found the legs you see in the pictures and my idea changed to maybe turning it into a stool. So here it is, the stool of indecision.

The top is layered oak panels that I reclaimed from a pallet. The pieces of purple heart I used as the inlay was a gift from my friends at Wishbone Woodworking in New York. The legs came off a chair I saved from the garbage collectors. It definitely took quite a lot of sanding and glue to bring them back to life. But I think they make a really nice addition to the whole piece.

The final step to this stool were the five coats of tongue oil, sanding in between each with some 320 grit.

Entertainment Center... In Progress.

This new project has been a lot of fun for me. I am building an entertainment center for my wife and myself. I decided to make it a bit more challenging by only using found or reclaimed wood.

The top and sides are made out of pallet wood. I spent a lot of time pulling nails for this one but I love the look of the old weathered wood so much. The first image shows the process of gluing the pieces together. I notched each piece to make it a bit sturdy.

Our current TV stand is very low and doesn't have a lot of storage space, which is always something I seem to never have enough of. So when I started designing this piece I wanted to double it. There will be four shelves on the top of the piece and one large drawer on the bottom. The front panel that will be the 4 shelves was a piece from an old desk I found on the street. It was mostly dismantled so i had a pretty easy time taking the pieces I wanted to save and leaving the rest. Honestly, when I found that front panel I started designing the rest of the unit around it. It was originally about 2' longer then it is now.

the final picture shows the entertainment center with the bottom fascia pieces. That is where the lower drawer will be. I think the drawer slides may be the only new piece of material I will have to buy. But I would prefer they be new and sturdy then old and rusty.

I am thinking about going to a few antique stores and thrift shops to try to find my drawer handles. I am trying to keep the look of the mismatched materials without making it overly cluttered looking.

This has been a fun project.

New ARP Woodworking Logo

My new logo is done! My good friend Sal has done a really great job. Make sure to check out his work on his site, www.salvationdesign.com/v3/. He is a really great designer and artist.

It's Logo Time!

It's about that time that ARP Woodworking got a little bit professional. My good buddy, Sal Dell'Aquila is, as I type this, working on a new logo for ARP Woodworking. I am very excited, he is a talented artist and designer.

Check out his work at the link bellow.

http://www.salvationdesign.com/v3/

New portfolio site.

I have decided to make a separation between the two current lives of the ARP Collective. Since this is, obviously, the ARP Woodworking blog I have decided to take my wood stuffs off my portfolio site and give it it's own place to live.

arpwoodworking.carbonmade.com

I now have the ability to share more of my wood work with the world.

To either put your drink on or sit upon...

I have been working on this piece a bit. It is a work in progress at the moment but considering I am having second thoughts on the direction it should go, I thought I would document it's progression.

Oak slats with purple heart inlayed into the top. I have the legs off an old chair that I am going to fix up for the legs of this. I want to stain the legs dark and keep a more natural look for the top.

I had initially meant to build it as a stool but I am starting to feel like turning it into an end table might be a little more fun. With the possibility of a shelf or drawer! But I haven't made up my mind yet. what you see in the picture is where I have stopped.

We will see...