Matching Side Tables for the Guest Room
We made a pair of side tables for our guest room, and they’re still there five years later. They’re simple on purpose: a mitered cherry box sitting on a set of red oak legs.
Early on, we didn’t have a go-to lumber source, so much of the wood came from the big orange store down the road. We wouldn’t buy it that way now, but it got the job done.
The part we love most is the waterfall edge. Because the box is mitered, the grain runs across the top and wraps down the sides, so each table looks like one continuous piece of wood. That detail is the reason we’d build this design again.
We’ll be honest about one thing. When we built these, we didn’t know that gluing edge grain to edge grain at the corners is a weak joint. The corners are holding up well, but if we made them again, we’d add corner splines to reinforce the miters.
The build took a couple of weeks, and the work was spread out. Part of that was a trip home to North Carolina. The rest was the garage, which is hard to work in when it’s 95 to 100 degrees outside. Anyone who has built in a garage knows the weather sets the schedule.
The tables have been in the guest room ever since. Anyone who stays over still comments on them, and that’s about the best feedback a piece of furniture can get.
