For those of you looking to jazz up your “man cave” or “woman cave”, as the case may be, check this out. Bill in Ohio submitted these pictures of his table and mirror frame for a friend’s basement bar:
Here’s a little background on my project. My friend, Karen, had a friend of hers designed a table and mirror to install behind the built-in bar in her basement. Based on her design, I came up with the dimensions and prepared a cut list.
I had to match the finish to the rest of the paneling and the bar in the basement. I tried several types of wood but the best match was with birch. The top ended up being 85″ long and 16.25″ wide and a full 1.5″ thick. After gluing up the top, I ran it through my drum sander to flatten and achieve final thickness. Next came the legs, 3″ square 36″ long. I had to then engineer how to fit the two shelves around the legs. I remembered how to utilize sticks to wrap around the legs and then using a flush trim bit cut a pattern out of 1/2″ plywood. After cutting the corners of my pattern square with a flush cut saw, I tried a fit around the legs…perfect tight fit. I then set the legs on the top to determine their placement. After that, I transferred marks to 3/4″ birch plywood and using the pattern, I used a jig-saw and rough cut the leg openings. I left the plywood long on both ends to hold the legs in place while I measured for the aprons. The plan called for 1.5″ thick shelves. After I cut the shelves to length and cutting the 45 degree angle at the left end, I used 3/4″ thick stock and cut a rabbet in which the plywood shelves could rest. I wrapped the plywood giving it the appearance of being 1.5″ thick and it also gave the shelves a lot of rigidity. Next came cutting the aprons which I would attach with loose tenons cut with my Festool Domino. I also had to fit in a piece of wood between the bottom of the aprons at the right side for the chrome wire glass holders. With the frame, I needed to fit a 60″ x 30″ mirror in the opening and below the mirror was a 60″ x 12″ section of 1″x2″ colored glass tile. I attached a 1/4″ piece of cement board on a 1/2″ piece of plywood, applied the tile and then grouted with sand free grout. After seeing how thick the tile was, I had to change plans and use 1.25″ thick stock for the frame. I cut a 1″ x 1/2″ deep rabbet on the back of the frame to fit 1/2″ plywood which I attached with 1″ screws. I cut a double rabbet on the bottom piece of the frame for the tile so I could snug up the frame piece to the tile. All connections were reinforced with 8mm dominos. That sure makes it easy. Next step was a dry fit to ensure that everything fit properly. Then I glued up the frame but due to the size of the table, I decided to assemble the table in Karen’s basement. I never would have gotten the assembled table up my basement steps. After staining everything to match a sample that I made early in the process to match the existing stain in Karen’s basement, I sealed with a coat of shellac and then 3 coats of General Finishes semi-gloss top coat. It was a fun and challenging project to build and the best thing is that Karen loves it. Here are some pictures of the in process and final installed table and mirror.
Overall this looks like a nice piece, but I have one fault I would like to point out…..
THERE IS NO MAKERS MARK!!!!!!
Growing up less than 10 miles from Makers Jim, I must agree ;)
Jim Fox, this isn’t my bar, in mine, I have a full bottle of Makers with a spare.
How come you chose to extend the left end of the table? It looks great….I’m more just curious if it was to cover up the outlet. If so that was a crafty move!
Neil, the left side with the 45 degree cut matches the bar that comes out from the wall and has that same angle. It’s not in the picture. I had to add the outlet with a switch to turn on the light box which has the bottles sitting on it. Bill in Ohio
Bill, Bill, Bill…the Bengals…REALLY??? At first I thought this was a nice friend of yours (table and frame look nice by the way) but now I know I was wrong (just kidding Karen). Cincinnati? The best thing about Cincinnati is the Zoo just like here in Cleveland (Cavs aren’t too bad right now either). [insert Browns' jokes here]. I like how you incorporated the table to the exsisting bar even if we cannot see it. Good work, hope the cutomer was happy.
Dan
Bill, Nice job. Keep up the quality work.
John