I love Ana White’s website. And I have a bit of a girl-crush on Ana herself. She is amazing and skilled at building things. I totally want her to move to St. Louis so we can be BFFs and work on projects together :-)
But in all seriousness, if you haven’t checked out her website, I highly recommend it. There are a lot of woodworking project plans with free tutorials. Lovely!
After getting irritated with my husband’s habit of just throwing down his wallet and key on any empty surface in the house, I decided he needed a designated spot for his stuff. Naturally, I went to Ana-White.com to look for plans for a console table. There, I found the Simple, Cheap and Easy Console Table plans. This table has nice, clean lines. The simple angles fit with the many pieces of Asian décor that we have. So, the Simple, Cheap and Easy Console Table was a clear winner.
Since this table was a gift for my husband (and a small gift for me since it would mean he’d no longer just throw his stuff around), I worked on it while he was at work and after he went to bed at night. It took a little longer than I had planned because I bought cheap white board from big box lumber. I bought the straightest pieces I could find, but even these pieces were mildly warped. So, pulling the pieces square was difficult since I was doing the work without help and without clamps. (I bought new clamps after finishing this piece.)
Painting and sealing were a bit of a problem on this piece. I wanted to use low VOC paint, so I was stuck using latex on wood. Wood and latex paint are NOT the best of friends, and the finish can have a bit of tack. The sticky, tackiness goes away after a while, but it can be annoying at first. I prefer the look of an oil enamel on wood, but the latex is more environmentally friendly.
I was disappointed with the brown latex finish, but as it's cured, it has grown on me. My husband picked out the color and really likes the finish. I'm just glad he now has a bowl on a table to keep his stuff tidy.
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