It being Bastille Day, we were poking around the Marie Claire Maison site and came across this table, put together by Paola Navone during her renovation, when her guests were on their way but her furniture hadn't yet been delivered. A solution to a problem that might have vexed most of us was easily solved...
Inspiration: Sew Your Own Table
Cobbled together from five wood planks that were on the site, red string and three trestles and then quickly limed, it reminded us of a favorite chair we'd seen at ICFF and underscored for us what can be done with a little ingenuity and a lot of imagination. This is one of those ideas we wish we'd come up with and which we'll definitely tuck away to use in the future.
While there are no instructions in the article, here's our best guesstimate on how to "sew" wood. But if anyone with carpentery experience has suggestions, please let us know in the comments!
- Drill holes in your wood. Here, it looks like Paola drilled 2 holes about 1/2 to 1 apart, spaced out along the length of her plank about two feet apart, about a 1/2 in from the end.
- Drill corresponding holes on your second piece.
- FIt your pieces together and "sew" them. This piece was meant to be a temporary option so her "thread" may have been as simple as strong cording.
[Image via Marie Claire Maison]
Comments (9)
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how do you *sew* wood?
view pinko's profile
Yes, this "sewing" technique intrigues me. Please explain.
view madampince's profile
Not at all a new idea. Seen it plenty of times with old antique benches.
It took some significant searching thus far, and the best I can come up with is a site that mentions how to repair cracked gourds using a similar method.
http://www.cagourds.com/gourdtips.html
it's about halfway down the page, and you'll know you're there because there's a picture of a repaired gourd with leather lacing.
If you're doing a bench or a table, my best guess would be to make sure you do the repair with a material that isn't going to decay or rot with moisture. I think sinew might work, but have to look a bit deeper. Will post again if I find something
view bobthefish's profile
Interesting idea, but is it sturdy enough to move around?
view suzy8track's profile
Yes, I'd be worried that someone leaning on the end would cause a see saw reaction. Maybe you could tie the ends to the end trestles?
view buda's profile
a lot of work for one dinner party.
view HeatherAB's profile
Who just happens to have five planks and three trestles lying around?
view jooly's profile
@ pinko and madampince:
Drill holes in your wood. Here, it looks like Paola drilled 2 holes about 1/2 to 1 apart, spaced out along the length of her plank about two feet apart, about a 1/2 in from the end.
Drill corresponding holes on your second piece.
FIt your pieces together and "sew" them. This piece was meant to be a temporary option so her "thread" may have been as simple as strong cording.
view cassandra158's profile
Hello. I had the same dilemma this Christmas. We were to have my cousins and their partners over for a Christmas dinner but our current dining table only seats 6. Using the existing feet, I bought 3 lengths of 2 x 12 x 12' SPF from the 'Depot' and made a 12' x 36" table that suited our purpose perfectly. You can see some of the construction pictures here http://whathanasius.blogspot.com/2009/01/pimp-my-dining-table.html
view Dhiraj D'Souza's profile