What We're Making: A Coffee-Cocktail-Table

You guys, all I want to do in this post is make dirty jokes. About Mr. W. And wood. 

On top of that, I'm watching Grease right now and singing "Beauty School Drop-out" as I type. Heaven knows where this post will go... 

Anyway, back to Mr. Wonderful's morning wood. Ooops did I just type that? I meant woodworking skills. 

Let's back up. 

For many years, Mr. W had a sort of sad-looking plain old black modern, cube-y coffee table that may or may not have been from IKEA. He talked for a long time about making a new table with a more stylish aesthetic, and this past fall he drew up a design sort of based on the Herman Miller Nelson bench:

 

Mr. W loves mid-century stuff and has made my love for it blossom, as well. (Avoiding a wood joke right now.)

Anyway, as part of his design process, he decided to go with walnut for the top. Which meant we had these planks of walnut in our guest room for about a month as they acclimated to the humidity in our house. Here's a before picture of the table pieces:

And here's the brown beauty after construction:

Although I didn't do anything instrumental in the building of it, I did help stain and varnish it. I love how each plank is slightly different. It's so pretty when the light hits it.

The first night we brought it into the house after it dried, I scratched it with a loose screw on the bottom of my laptop. I just said screw. And bottom. When talking about wood... I can't hold it in, I'm sorry.

It's definitely the most beautiful piece of furniture we have in our living room. Probably in the whole house. Mr. W sure is good with wood.

Now excuse me while I get back to Danny Zuko and American Bandstand at the school dance.