Building a tea table

This is my second tea table. The first table was built from scratch.

To build the second table I had to spend 45 minutes of close inspection of products in Home Depot.

Material gathering

After 30 minutes of inspection I finally purchased:

1. Sand paper (120) - 2 sheets: For fine and crisp surface
2. Wood finish - Cherry 235 - 236 ml: For wood color
3. Polyurethane - clear semi gloss - 236 ml: Same as waxing the car, for shinny surface
4. Brush - 2: Each for 2 and 3
5. Pine wood - 36" x 16" (table top)
6. Table stand - 4 pcs
7. Mounting panel - 4 pcs: I selected slanted style panel rather than straight one
8. Screws: A pack of screw

Sand paper, brush, wood finish and polyurethane

Table leg

Mounting panel (slanted)

Hmmm ... let’s start

As soon as I reached my apartment I unpacked the shopping bags and started to paint the table surface and legs. Both the table surface and the legs was painted twice with an interval of 3 hours to let it dry. Remember ... too much color is not good.

Please note, it is always recommended to do the painting job outdoor.

Finally the color is now clearly visible ... the cherry 235.

The designing process

I started to mark 2" x 2" intersection with my pencil and ruler. The intersection, 2" x 2", is from the corner of the table surface and is for the slanted panel placement. So, why did I use 2" scale? The reason to go for 2" x 2" is to place the legs such that it is not on the way of the passerby.

After marking the 2" x 2" intersection I mounted the panels onto the wood surface and subsequently screwed the table legs onto the panels.

Hmmm ... the table is almost ready . Then I made sure the surface was smooth enough, using sand paper, before I applied Polyurethane twice with an interval of 3 hours.

The final result