Making This West Elm Table For A Fraction of the Cost
The West Elm Solstice Line has this beautiful table that ranges from $600 to $800 online, depending on the size of it. They also have a taller entry way table that is $700, so I decided I wanted to make a hybrid of all of these to fit at the end of my bed - so I am changing up the size of it to meet my needs.
I got a 4 x 8 sheet of ½ plywood and had them cut it at the hardware store. I got it cut to 18” and this will be used for both of the side pieces. This is the one piece that I will have to create a custom shape for because I want this to be very solid and hold the whole thing together. Once this is cut, we can wrap it with different pieces of wood, to build the bench around it. I drew my side shape on this to my liking and then rounded out the edges.
I stacked two pieces of the plywood together and cut through both of them at once using a circular saw in order to get them to be the exact same size. I then sanded the pieces before moving on to the next step.
I got two 8ft pieces of 2x2 pine and cut it down into 12 pieces.
I am now going to screw this between my two pieces of plywood to complete the skeleton of the table. Make sure when screwing the pine to the plywood that the 2x2’s are perfectly centred.
This finally creates the skeleton of the bench!
To wrap the skeleton, I need to create curved corners, so to do this, I corrugated the wood. I started by cutting out 4 rectangles of poplar plywood to the width of the bench and making each long enough to wrap around the curve. It’s important that you use a plywood that has a good veneer on one side because that is what is going to hold our curve together.
Next, adjust the base plate on your circular saw so the depth of the cut cuts through almost all of the plywood except the very last layer of ply. Making multiple of these straight cuts close together is what’s going to allow your wood to bend. If it still feels like it is requiring a lot of force to bend, you can wet it with some water and let the wood soak for a little bit. This should make your wood bendier.
You can now place it on the corner and screw it into place as you go.
Now all that’s left to do for constructing the bench is filling in the remaining gaps with wood. I opted for some cheaper wood for this section just to lower my price range. So all you have to do is measure the gaps that are missing, cut them to size and screw in those pieces. Now I just need to wood fill the screws and sand down the whole surface before I move on.
I believe the original table is made from a fabric that has then been lacquered, but to keep the price lower - I decided that a textured wallpaper would do the trick!
To attach it, all I’m going to do is use some regular wallpaper glue and cover the full surface of the bench. I then covered the full surface with a durable shellac top coat to finish it off!
