Instagram is an excellent place for inspiration for making furniture. But, it is not really the place to learn how to make things. We recently saw an entryway table that an influencer was showing. The table is made from 2 bys of different widths.
We like this piece. It’s just that it takes more than simply throwing a few 2 bys together to make it work. In this post, we’ll go over some of the issues. In a later post, we’ll cover what we did to the wood and some extra steps we took to make it work for us.
The design is straightforward. Two legs, a brace, and a top. As SosimplyJessica is showing the video, the captions provide the instructions.
Top: 2″x12″ by 6′ 2″ long. Legs 2″x”8″ by 39 1/2″ long. Brace 2″x 6″ by 41″ long. All angles are cut at 28 degrees. Stain it.
In the comments, someone asked how it was held together. The reply: Just some screws.
The thing is, the way the video was done, you didn’t see any screws, and the wood didn’t look like your typical, right off the rack, lumber yard or big box 2-bys for the top(yes, the stamp is there, but the wood is not as rough as normal.) Either the video didn’t show things, or it wasn’t quite as easy as implied.
We decided we would make the entryway table. But first, we looked at the instructions so we would know what to expect and how to adjust.
Wood Selection for furniture
Buying wood from a big box will get you a wide range of poor-quality wood. Lumber from these places is intended for construction. Yes, they have some hardwoods, but they are not worth the price. In this case, the instruction is to pick up what is really construction-grade lumber. It is part of the aesthetic.
This wood has many issues that make it poor for furniture.
Bows, twists, warping, pitting, and many other cosmetic and structural issues make it harder to work with. These are minor conditions for rough construction but are painful for furniture.
While all wood needs to be worked on with jointers and planers (or substitute methods) to make it square and straight, construction-grade lumber is just too much of a stretch to make it worthwhile most of the time.
So, we spent a long time going through many boards to find some that were not terrible for this furniture project.
Most people, even avid woodworkers, don’t own jointers or even planers. So, “just picking up some lumber” doesn’t really do justice to the effort needed.
Wood surface for finishes
Related to the above issues is the concern about the wood surface. If you don’t care about consistency or plan to stress the furniture anyway, this may not be a concern for you. On the other hand, if a clean look is important, you will be hard-pressed to get the look you want from rough lumber.
Part of the issue is the differences in board widths being used. 12″, 8″, and 6″ boards will be milled from different sizes of trees and ages. This makes the grains very different. Even within a width for rough lumber, you can expect a lot of variation.
While we bought a 2″x12″ for the top and a 2″x8″ for the legs, we also got a 2″x8″ for the brace and then ripped it on the table saw to a 2″x6″. This was the only way to get the legs and the brace to have similar surfaces (the 2″x6″ stock was really different.)
Because these are rough lumber, the surfaces were, well, rough. We spend a lot of time sanding to get relatively smooth and consistent surfaces. Far from perfect, but this was a step left out in the comments. You can’t stain construction-grade lumber off the rack and make it look decent.
While this project called for staining the piece, even if you intend to paint the project, you really want surfaces that are not marred with big knots and holes. If you paint, you can use fillers to help smooth the surface.
Moisture is another issue you’ll need to deal with. Typically, decent wood for furniture will have a 9% or lower moisture rating. The softwood from a big box will have up to 20%. The higher moisture content will affect the way the stain is accepted by the wood. With the normal variations in grain found in softwood and the higher moisture content, creating a nice finish will require some extra steps.
Joining the Table Pieces
One of the things that jumped out was the instruction to “just screw” the pieces together. This is bad advice for several reasons.
Chief among the reasons this is bad is simply the weight of a 2″x8″ board. The brace is butted against the legs. Driving screws through the legs and into the end grain of the brace will create a very weak joint. When you move the piece, the torque created by the legs (and gravity) will easily pull the screws free of the brace.
The issue of torque is exacerbated by the fact that the legs are running at a 28-degree angle. With this design, there is a constant, outward pressure tugging at the screws. Since these are joined through the end grain, the screws will have a poor grip on the wood grains. It will not take long for the legs to simply pull away from the brace.
From a purely aesthetic view, screwing the top to the base is less than ideal. Also, the board can crack over time, depending on how you place the screws. This is due to changing moisture content and the board contracting and expanding(though, perhaps with something as thick as a 2-by, you won’t face this.) With 2-by stock, the risk may be remote, but if it happens, there is no recovery.
Ok, so why bother? Well, we liked the look of the piece. The rough lumber, while too rough off the rack to get a good look, can be worked to accept stain and look decent. Even in the video the influencer showed, you can see some of the gaps between the top and the brace… we had the same issue. You do need to take the time to find lumber that is “good enough,” though it will always have some issues.
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