Ana White 20 Second Tidy Coffee Table

Hi there!

It's been a while since I have posted, but I'm back!  We hit a little bit of a family hiccup and had to tend to a few things.  Now that it is getting back to normal in our home, we decided to get back into our projects.

One of the first projects we wanted to tackle was our "Formal Living/Play Room".  I haven't decided how I want to decorate this room yet, but I would like to somehow incorporate it into a play room/living room.  The layout of our home allows me to see our toddler from our kitchen no matter where she is on the first floor.  In the meantime, since it is furniture-less, it looks like a scene from the Gremlins after they cut loose in the department store.

Here is our new table!  

Must Haves for the Living Room:
Storage ✓
Green/Blue Paint like Sea Salt to the left
Sleeper Sofa





Wall Cabinet like this one from Ballard Designs














Let's Talk Storage

We needed something to hold Little O's toys, but didn't want something that would be too big or not go with the decor once we get furniture in this room.  We decided to make a coffee table by an Ana White plan found here

It was so much fun making this table.  But, I can tell you the price went far beyond the estimate on her site.  We spent close to $200 building this table.  We used the Kreg Jig for the whole table and highly recommend it.  We didn't use it originally to attach the legs to the top, but as others commented it was not very sturdy so we ended up using Kreg Jig holes to secure that part as well.  We used top select pine which probably served as the difference in price.  In her directions she stated her boards were not straight, I'm gathering that meant she didn't use top choice.

We followed the directions exactly for the build including the stain she used and finishing it up with a few coats of spray on Polyurethane.  The only deviation we made was the stenciling of the numbers on the drawer front, I wanted to do something more personal like the girls' birthdays or even the year we were married, but haven't decided on something yet.

I loved that in the plans (especially since this was the first major build we've done), they explained what to buy and where to make the cuts.  There were also a few useful tips given as well.  For our first furniture build we found the plans to be amazing and extremely helpful for the sanity of a not so detailed husband and a very detailed wife build team :).

Here are some photos of our project build.  Again, using the plans we cut and used the Kreg Jig to secure the 1x6's together to form the table and then added bread board sides.  I love the look of bread board sides.  Our morning room table has them and I loved that we were able to carry the look into the other room as well.

As you can see we drilled Kreg Jig holes to secure the 1x6's together. 

Then, we added the supports for the legs and attached the sides to the table top.  As stated above, we originally only attached the sides to the supports using screws but it was not very stable at all.  We debated going back out to purchase L Brackets but then took the legs off and drilled 3 Kreg Jig holes into the sides and attached the legs directly to the top through those holes.  This step made a complete difference.

Here is the built table.  We finished it very late in the evening and the light was not very good.  Sorry about the poor photo.

Next, we built the drawer.  The drawer is on casters.  We chose pretty bronze ones, but they can not be seen.  The drawer can be easily moved around to collect items around the house and then rolled back under the table.

Here is the table with one coat of Ipswich Pine stain.  We moved an old carpet remnant into the garage bay as the floor was quite chilly.

This table was very forgiving.  Here it is with two coats of Ipswich Pine and then I lightly went over each edge with Dark Walnut.  I was nervous at first to apply such a dark stain to the edges but once I did, it made a huge difference.  It deepened the color and brought out all of the wonderful character of the wood.

In some areas, I went back over it again with the Ipswich Pine to blend the colors more, so there wasn't a definitive stain line of the Dark Walnut.

And here she is.... FINISHED.....