Rob’s Gaming/Kitchen Table

I was definitely inspired by the beautiful tables produced by GeekChic, but wanted to build one of my own that fit my wife’s design sense. It was quite a learning experience, and took me just shy of a year to complete (other projects kept interrupting it). I also just saw that something like this is slated for a TWW Guild project soon, so I’ll be interested to see how it compares to what Marc’s creating! This was definitely the most ambitious project I’ve ever attempted, but in the end I’m quite happy with the results, and am looking forward to spending the summer relaxing and playing games at it.

There are 8 drawers; one on each end with push-to-open slides, two wider drawers on each side with handles, and a small drawer with drink holders (and push-to-open slides) in the center. The top has 5 removable leaves (with a removable central support), which exposes the game area below. The inner rails have a dado cut into them, that is destined to allow accessories to be attached (such as dice trays, or book stands). There is an aluminum pin along one side that can be pushed up from the bottom so you can pull out the leaves. I’m also planning on making an insert that replaces the leaves with a card table felt.

The base is hard maple, painted with black oil enamel. The top is cherry, which I aged/darkened using a lye solution, followed by a coat of shellac, and 3 coats of arm-r-seal. The bottom of the play area and drawers is cherry plywood. Most of the joinery is dovetails, with some mortise and tenons.