Way back in the long winter nights at the start of this year I resolved to do something with my evenings and embarked upon a project to make a new dining table for my house.
Sitting at a computer screen all day can be a pretty frustrating experience at times and being a country boy at heart I missed the thrill of producing something with my hands.
Not long before I had donated my old dining table and chairs to my brother who had just built a new house but hadn’t a stick of furniture to go in it. There’s only so long you can deal with eating off your lap so I embarked on designing and building a table whilst doing a DIY woodworking course at Belfast Metropolitan College.
I have always liked the durability and clean look of oak. Its tough stuff. After producing the table design, plans and cutting list using Google Sketchup I spent several hours trawling through a wood yard which sits in the shadow of David and Goliath in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast called McGregors. I came across these beautiful rough sawn planks of American Oak which I knew would do the trick.
After weeks and months of drying the wood out, planing it, measuring, trimming, gluing, mortising, tenoning, chiseling, sanding, tweaking the design and finally oiling with Danish Oil I finally have the completed table sitting in my living room ready for its first meal.
And here it is in all its woody goodness.
Take my advice. Get your arse out from behind that computer and do something. Make something. You’ll be surprised how good it makes you feel inside.
David