White Oak Table

While doing a reno of our house, the kitchen floor was made of 3/4" white oak boards. There were some left-overs, not just the tongue-and-groove floor boards but also some of the raw white oak, which was one inch thick. It was enough wood to have our carpenter make us a nice four feet square kitchen table.

Here a side-note, but important if you want to do a similar thing. The "spiral" design required a plywood layer under the oak for support. But talking to some local shipbuilders (we live in a coastal town) they strongly advised that in that case you also need to add the same layer of oak below the plywood. Sounds like a waste of hardwood, but it's all because wooden boards and plywood have different expansion and shrinking characteristics. Layering wooden boards and plywood has to be 100% symmetrical, no exceptions here. Our table was made like that (1/4 inch oak sandwiching both sides of the plywood) and after four years the table top is still 100% flat.

A Matching Stool

After using the left-overs for the table there was still a little left to build a small stool in a similar style. But now a smaller 3x3 design instead of the 7x7 for the table. I became so scarce on oak boards that I first built a mock-up from white pine, which in the end still became a nice little stool to have :).

Building the "real thing" was a challenging project. Like I had to laminate two layers of 3/4" oak for the legs. And then creating a sturdy attachment of the legs to the seat was a puzzle. As the pictures show, you can't have enough clamps. It all turned out really well. The stool really mimics the kitchen table and because it is made of white oak, it became very solid but also surprisingly heavy.

My "secret" finishing is not your typical 3:2:1 ratio but a 2:2:1 mixture of boiled linseed oil, oil based polyurethane and one part pure turpentine or mineral spirits. Two coats, a light sanding, applying some beewax and the result looks great. Even after couple of years of daily use ...