For my birthday, my girlfriend gave me a beautiful matched pair of quarter sawn Padauk boards. They are both about 10.5 inches wide. I plan to use them for the top of a coffee table. Those two boards would yield a top that is about 19 to 10 inches wide (and between 40 and 43 inches long). The problem is I would like the top to be 25 inches wide.
The attached drawing is gives the design I settled on for the coffee table (still a work-in-progress, as you can tell from my various treatments of the bottom shelf edges).
The way I see it, I have three design choices.
A. I can center the matched pair on the top and use two 2.5 to 3 inch boards on either side of the pair. This has the advantage of centering the design on the matched pair, but I don’t like the idea on having a “banding” around the matched pair.
B. I can use one 5 to 6 inch board and have the center of the matched pair off-center. The avoids the sense of a “banding”, but might not look so great with the center of the matched pair off-center.
C. I can get over myself and settle for a 19 to 20 inch wide top.
How would you approach this design problem? Any advice would be most appreciated.
Replies
Choice d. Shop sawn veneer. You didn't mention thickness, but you should yield enough for a bookmatch center section and 2 pieces for the edges. A 3-4 piece slip match could also look good.
You didn't mention what you would make the rest of the table out of. My first thought would be to obtain some additional padauk for the base and to supplement the top. Of course, you could also use a contrasting wood. If you choose the latter, maybe you could find an interesting piece to go down the middle of the top with the two pieces you have on either side.
"You didn't mention what you would make the rest of the table out of."
I should add that the boards are 13/16 thick and that the coffee table will be all solid Padauk, except for the drawer fronts and (perhaps) the center board of the lower shelf; these will be birdseye maple (the maple and additional padauk I have had for many years; I haven’t done much woodworking in a couple of decades, now I am retired and getting back into it).
Hence my thought that I could use the Padauk I already have to achieve the width I would like best to have. But I have learned that, for many things, what looks cool to the inexperienced novice (if I am kind to myself, I'd say I am an advanced beginner) doesn’t look so cool once one has more experience. So, I’ve turned to the more experienced for advice: which would you chose: two 3 inch boards on either side of the centered pair or one 6 inch board and the pair off-center (or maybe an altogether different approach)?
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Just spitballing materials management for a minute;
If you resaw just one of your 10.5 wide boards to make a 20+" wide bookmatch use the other board to make solid edges and breadboard ends you should have enough for the whole top with a really nice grain match and maybe 2" wide solid edges. Your limiting factor might be how long your leftover stock is that you need to get the breadboard ends out of.
BTW: Keep that girl, lumber for your birthday? Shes got it going on!
My option would be to resaw it and do a veneer, as sqpeg said. That's nice, thick material to work with, and you could do the whole top with only one board and use the other for other parts of the table.
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