Teak and Glass Library Table Details
 The Teak and Glass Library Table Completed |
We worked on a simple design. Simple designs when successful appear simple. Accomplishing such is not simple. We played with quite a few ideas and sketched them until modifications made us both happy. The end product does look quite simple and just plain "fits" the home. Some extra effort and hidden techniques lead to the end product satisfying the "simple" Frank Lloyd Wright style.
This table was the second project for this client and thus, certain techniques and aspects were already determined in the first project. However, it's not the same piece and thus some different scenarios were involved.
The client had some specific wishes also. It was to be a narrow table which fit near, but under some windows. It is a bit longer than many such tables. Also, a glass top as well as a lower glass shelf were to be included.
As a taller piece with no visible joints, it is not as sturdy as I would ideally attempt to make. All joinery is invisible via dowels, biscuits and screws were hidden inside two layers of wood. As there are no children in the home, it does not receive rough use and the lack of extreme joining support works fine.
The beautiful teak wood used to make this piece came from the client. There was teak decking in the house with a water feature which had been removed years ago. The wood was saved and stored with the eventual concept of re-use for something else at sometime in the future. That was now.
The old wood first had to be planed smooth as the surface areas were finished and dinged up a bit. After being planed, the fine wood which was beneath surfaced. Once the true surface of the various teak pieces were visible, I planned my cuts and usable areas accordingly.
Production was not fast, but no big surprises occurred. The leg cross braces were adhered with glue and dowels to make the joining invisible. The top of the table and the bottom shelf which are both two layers of teak joined together with stainless steel screws from the underside and biscuits at the corners. The bottom shelf has rabbits cut on the inside edges to house the bottom glass shelf. The top glass shelf simply sets on top of the top teak frame.
As for finishing the piece, the desire was to match various other teak finished in the home. Prior to an early visit I made sample teak pieces and applied all the "natural" finishes I have to them. Teak oil, poly urethane, marine varnish, etc. Looking at all of them next to the ones in the home, none matched exactly. There was a much lighter appearance to the existing teak finish but I have no idea how it was achieved. We don't know what was used or when and it's possible time and sunlight has changed the shade. We simply found out none of them matched so the client selected the sample which looked best in the room. On this table, teak oil was hand applied until a nice finish was achieved, about 7 to 8 coats. I expect with time the color will yellow to match the other teak in the house. As it is not near any of the other teak items, it does appear to match pretty well already.
This was a very nice project which turned out extremely nice. It was a pleasure making this piece.
