I was talking to Erik tonight about making things with wood. I told him how I had wanted to make a simple table without fancy joinery and this is what I came up with. It is a country table that resides in our kitchen. There is very little hardware involved with this table. There is a screw and knob for the drawer and 4 screws to fasten the top. You may notice the apron goes around the outside of the legs instead of the typical way of between the legs. The legs are the key to holding the table together.
They are face glued straight to the inside corner of the apron.

The top is joined in the normal way for a flat panel, no dowels, splines, or plates.

The drawer does have dovetail joints at the front. These were simple and I cut them by hand using a saw and a chisel. A router takes a lot more set up time. I think I remember using the band saw also. The other end is a simple dado cut on the table saw. I added some interest by beveling the ends of the drawer front. It makes it look much lighter, don't you think so?

The drawer slides are simple also.
Just wood above, below and to the side of the drawer. It slides so nicely! I love wooden drawer slides with a little wax on them. The hardware is to fasten the top. Maybe you can see below. There is an ell shaped piece of wood with the nose inserted into a slot in the apron. The ell is then screw to the top. There are 4 of these. One near each corner. I used a router to make the slot (dado).


I think this is a nice looking table. It is light weight and light in appearance. It doesn't have that refined look of gentrified furniture. The top overhangs a bit more than usual. This also adds to the country look. The pictured colors are pretty much true. The stain I used turned out way more orange than I had planned for, but it has grown on me, until I now like it. The top is finished with gloss polyurethane. Stain only on the rest. Maybe someday I will finish it. What do you think? Is it worth messing with, or should I leave well enough alone?