In November 2007 I began work on a drop leaf kitchen table for my sister. I’m not really one for plans but I measured her kitchen and we settled on a table size. Her kitchen is small so a drop leaf type table was definitely the way to go. We also thought a drawer would be handy to increase her storage. Not having plans I guessed a lot at how much wood I’d need. I guessed wrong twice so far and had to go back to the lumber stores twice to get more.
The total time spent on this table was MUCH higher than I would have thought. Between the hand-cut mortise and tenon joints, the dovetails, the solid cherry top, etc I must have spent 50+ hours easy.
This is most definitely the most intricate and challenging project I’ve ever undertaken. The tolerances for a lot of this stuff are so much smaller than I’m used to dealing with. Thank goodness for hand planes! I used my planes and cabinet scraper extensively for trimming and flattening during this project.

Following are some photos of the table during construction:

Below is a close-up of the legs, skirt and draw slide.

Here is the whole leg piece fully assembled and with a first couple coats of danish oil.

And even closer on the legs. The skirts are joined to the legs with a hand-cut mortise and tenon join. Dowels were added to strengthen the joint.

Here is the drawer front. It’s the same maple in the center but edged with Peruvian Walnut.

Close-up of the joinery on the drawer body. The draw is made from ash and black walnut.

And the drawer again.

And some photographs of the finished table at Christy’s place:

The top is composed of about 20 1.5" strips of cherry glued together. Unfortunately, because my glue up was a but uneven, leveling that panel by hand took an enormous amount of work. Next time I’ll try a bit harder to make sure I don’t have to plane down a 40×40 panel about 1/8"!

Mmmm Shiny. The top is three coats of Watco Danish Oil (natural), five coats of Minwax wipe on poly (satin) and one coat of Briwax (clear).

I didn’t quite get the drop-leaf joint the way it was supposed to be but it looks pretty nice anyways and I don’t want to tempt fate by bringing a router to the finished table.
The mortise and tenon joints are pinned with dowels just to be really sure they aren’t going to come apart on me.

The finished drawer.