Tabling the Discussion

"Reclaimed" Farm House Table

Winter persists. The biggest debate in this city right now, it seems, is who is responsible for what when it comes to snow removal. The city maintains that by by-laws, a home owner is responsible for the side walk outside of their home (tough cookies if you live on a corner lot and have twice as much sidewalk, but these are the things you should consider when buying a house).  Some of the citizenry, in defense of their inalienable right not to get off the couch, grab a shovel and have a little civic pride, invoke the time honored answer of  2-year-olds everywhere ... "NO! Don't WANNA".   As you might expect, walking anywhere this week is an adventure in ice skating, and that is even with wearing boots suitable for a 6 month stint at the South Pole. 

The good news is, it is only 2 short months left until spring, and then the city and its loving citizenry can find something else to butt heads about (insert your own jokes about "butt heads", if you must). 

I continue with making quarter-inch scale furniture for the fabled "Washtub Cottage" by Petite Properties. First, a resolution of the issue I had last week, vis-a-vis the recalcitrant sink which insisted on being too big. In the end I remade the sink, drafting my pattern to the cardstock rather than printing out the pattern. Low and behold, look at the difference : 

Sink Comparisons Photocopied Pattern (left) and Drafted (right)

 
I was expecting it to be shorter, but proportionally wider? Not sure why the proportions would be off width-wise, but it is probably a math thing. Both cute, but the smaller one works better. I also changed the smaller one a bit, putting it up on bead feet, which I thought was cute, and I hate to make two of anything exactly the same (which of course is the reason to get into making exact scale models, right?). Blame the Right Brain, I often do. 

Drafted Sink beside Finished Cook Stove

The stove doesn't look so puny now that the sink has been cut down to size.

Cook Stove and Sink, second view

Much better. I also changed the sink to a single faucet, as the sink seemed too crowded with two faucets. I did live in a house that had a sink like this - it was a Royal PITA (Pain In The ...you get the idea) to use but in miniature I suspect it is a much smaller problem.

Once the above had been satisfactorily sorted, I flipped my pattern book until I came upon the next piece to catch my fancy - all will be built eventually, but apparently there is a bizarre rating system of what is most important to build on any given day. Today I chose this amazing little farmhouse table. 

 

Petite Properties Fiona Broadwood "Farmhouse Table"

Yes, again - this is all paper. As lessons have been learned over the past few weeks, I begin with drafting my pattern onto cardstock. One thing I learned today - the cardstock I was using does need to be doubled for a piece of furniture such as this, as there is an awful lot of weight that is being supported by the side pieces.  Near the end, once I realized the structural concerns, I would draft my pattern out, score it on a "folding" end,  fold and glue to give me a stronger weight of cardstock. This is a must of course assuming you are using a cardstock that is as light as I was using. If you start out with a heavier cardstock or a light cardboard, you will not need to re-enforce in this manner. This table is actually made in 3 parts - table top, table structure, and the under table with the slats.  I doubt if "under table" is a word, if you are curious, it probably has a name but this will do until I stop being lazy and look up the answer in  *Grey's Anatomy of Common Tables. 

*not a real publication

The Table, drafted

Once again, with my amazingly questionable photographic skills, I show you the drafted pattern. The legs are only 1/16th of an inch wide. This is where you have to be very careful in how you cut, where you cut, and where you find out if you have mad measuring skills or not. The pieces I had to cut out from the interior of the pattern, I found scissors (scrapbooking scissors with a sharp point at the end for preference) were more useful than a blade,  which becomes somewhat bulky and unwieldy at this size.

Table, Cut out and Folded

This piece I unfortunately didn't double, and you can see how fragile it can be. As one adds more elements, of course, the piece becomes more stable, but again, those spindly little legs need strength to support itself. 

Table Top

 The table top again is a piece of matboard, scored, as I did with the sink backsplash. 

Upsy Daisy!

Here I glued the base to the table top, with the scored side of course facing down.

Table, upright

Base Piece

The piece that goes on the bottom of the table started out as above. This time I was smart and doubled my card for structure. The thickness  also helps when you need to glue bits together. 

Table Bottom Structure, excised.

Bottom Structure with Slats

 I cut out the tiny little slats for the table. I use a quilter's method  when I have to cut many little pieces that have a specific need for uniformity - I cut out a single straight piece of cardstock the width of my longest side (in this case the height of the slats), and then I can cross section my needed slats without worrying about that pesky uniformity in height. These were a little tricky to cut even so as again, they were 1/16th of an inch wide. A cutting blade and pencil marks can seriously mess you up, and in the end I "eyeballed" the pieces. This is obviously not the recommended way to do carpentry, as our eyes cannot be truly trusted to get dimensions exactly right, only estimations, but with small things and with experience you can certainly get away with certain short cuts in small scales you simply can't in bigger scales. Also, if you are doing "rustic" like I am (translation: you can get away with so much more if it is supposed to look banged up), the unevenness can add certain charms. That, at least, is what I keep telling myself.

Wibbley Wobbley Table

 Part of the wibbley-wobblieness of the table is partly because the glue hasn't set, and part because the legs are getting quite a bit of weight on them now. I have glued the slatted base onto my table, and I have added several little skirts to the table, to flesh it out a bit, and to give it more visual "weight". I eventually did have to re-enforce the bottom legs, because they were becoming obviously strained.

Table, Painted

 Ah, the glue is dry, as is the first coat of paint. This is a good time to check for missed spots, and I would suggest taking the piece over to a window in the middle of the day, and you will find your missed spots, which can be alarmingly many for such a little project.

Farmhouse Table, Disgustingly Pickled

And Voila! A very complicated looking table, ready to be decked out in table-related finery. To my eye, this isn't a dining table, but a work table, where maybe bread would be prepared, etc, or used as a side board, because it is tall for a table. It could easily be translatable into a gardening bench, if someone were to take that as a fancy. 
 
 Speaking of fancy, I would like to conclude today with a really cool cake tutorial from the good people at youtube, because,   as mentioned, you can't make a table without thinking a little ahead about what is going to be sitting on top. This is a simple technique, but a great many possibilities. The DIY'er, by the name of Toni Ellison (clever girl but not anyone I know personally),  I suspect used one of the cutters you can buy for poly clay, but certainly an innovative soul could do the old poly clay rope trick, cross-section and assemble as in the video, and achieve a similar effect.  This could be very easily "scaled down" for a 1/2 or 1/4 scale offering as well. Very Cool Project, Toni, whoever you are. Until next time my friends...