“Toddler table” would have been enough, but who can resist some good ol’ title alliteration? Forgive me, it’s late and I’m fully cognizant of the dearth of winter updates on the ol’ blog here. So here’s a little glimpse of at least one tiny project that I completed this winter. This is a toddler table for our little fellow (who will be turning 2 in March, yow).
Much of the past couple months has been imbued with sickness, cold cold weather, and sticking close to home. You know, winter stuff. The woodworking bug tends to hit me hard in the winter, so I try to carve out time whenever possible to make some stuff in the workshop. The time is always more limited than I like, especially now with a kiddo vying for as much attention as humanly possible. So it’s only appropriate that one of my woodworking projects is specifically for his benefit. Well, enough yammering, take a look!
Staked Toddler Table
I try to make as much of our own furniture as possible, time allowing. We’ll often go months without what feels like a basic piece of furniture. (For example, I’m typing this on a folding table… I actually made the desk already, but it needs a repair. Oops.) So it was only natural that I make the toddler table too, right? Thankfully it was pretty simple. Honestly, it was good practice too, since I’m still getting used to the massive moisture differences between the shop and house which can wreck havoc on (what seemed like) a completed project (see: desk that I mentioned above).
I followed plans in one of my favorite current woodworking books, The Anarchist’s Design Book. The “staked worktable” plans are normally scaled for adult use, but I easily scaled it down for someone in the ~36″ height category. I used poplar for the top and legs, which is usually considered a so-called “secondary wood” (a.k.a. “this wood isn’t good enough for a fine piece of furniture”). I actually like poplar quite a bit, and it’s pretty inexpensive around here. But anyway, I had planned to paint the desk from the get-go, so it would have been foolish to use anything flashier than the commoner’s poplar. Oh, and it’s a kid’s table, so there’s that too.
The legs are not unlike that of a Windsor chair — they’re round tenons that get glued and wedged into the two battens on the underside of the table. Pretty simple stuff. Strong, too. This is what I’m aiming for with all of my current and future home woodworking projects — relatively easy to execute, clean, pretty. The legs have a simple and visually appealing octagonal shape.
I ended up using milk paint for the finish. I should have avoided the black undercoat altogether, since it took many coats of yellow to get good coverage. I wanted the two tone look, but black was just too much for this. No biggie though. This thing is going to get marker, crayon, juice, and lord knows what else all over it in the coming couple of years. The eventual color might not be yellow at all. For a protective finish, I used Rubio Monocoat, my go-to finish of choice for wood projects these days.
Well, there ya have it. Toddler table = done. Maybe I’ll fix our staked desk next…