Custom Dining Table...Design

Last year I took on my biggest project yet. My family and I had recently moved into our rental home and the small 3' circle dining table just wasn't cutting it any more. My wife has great design sense showed me this coffee table for design inspiration.

I really like the chevron design and it reminded me of parquet floor or herringbone design. This was our second photo for design inspiration.

A great woodworking tool is actually my computer! With the help of my sister, Kim McIntyre (who also has a woodworking business in the Denver Area and sells online), we drew up the design on Google SketchUp.  SketchUp is a FREE sofware that is really intuitive and is used to model 3D objects, such as buildings or woodworking projects.  I have since used SketchUp to work with clients firm up their custom piece before actually building it.

Here are some screenshots of the design...

As you can see, we stuck with the cool chevron design on the top, and we really gravitated toward the trestle leg design to add some different lines to the table and create something unique.

We now had a design and it was time to start buying wood and get to work! My dad got me an old Shopsmith Mark V for Christmas off craigslist and it meant time for business!

More on the table to come!