Gardner’s Contemporary Side Table

I’ve decided to make a small side table. My goal was to use my aesthetic exploration of contemporary design. I wanted to blend a natural material and texture with something very inorganic. With this in mind, I started sketching furniture that had a cascade of hard white or grey material, with a drawer or shelf made from natural wood.

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In my drawings, I meant the orange or blue to be a darker, natural wood like mahogany or maple. With this in mind, I was able to find some good poplar wood at Resource in east Boulder from an old shelving unit. I got a pretty large sheet of 3/4″ thick wood that I was able to cut down to the correct dimensions for all the various parts.  I mainly used the ITLL wood shop to cut the pieces and glue them together. I also used some pocket screws, which create a really strong joint. At this point, the little cabinet can hold my body weight!

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Next, I got some wood filler and have filled in the gaps and cracks that result from using “imperfect” wood. Currently, the wood filler is curing and my next step will be sanding and painting the whole cabinet glossy white. Then I just need to install the drawer sliders I bought and install a pretty looking piece of wood for the drawer face!

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3 Comments. Leave new

  • Nice practical project! I like the painting that you did on your table. The drawer is pretty cool with nice rails. I would recommend putting some graphics on the side table.

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  • I liked your first post about natural materials in modern looks, so I think it’s awesome you are running with that aesthetic for your upcycling. I’m really curious to see how it will turn out, it looks like you did a great job with the construction of the box but things like this boil down to the paint job oftentimes, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that part turns out. It sounds like your ideas of heavy paint will work, I think it’ll be cool!

    Reply
  • This looks great. I really liked how you wrote the blog explaining your thought and step processed. From reading and looking at the pictures I can see that you put a lot of work and detail on the side table. looking forward in looking at the finished product.

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