Would anyone be interested in a small project/progress thread?

On the creation of something like this;




It's a birthday/christmas present for the girlfriend and the idea/plan behind it is:

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  I have a printers tray that the girlfriends mum made her sell at a carboot. I bought it and said it would be good for a project.

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  I've just purchased this:
  
  

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  I'm planning on possibly creating a drawer, so that the table can be used as a display case.

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  In the display case will be framed/fitted photos, but also some presents, and empty frames for future photos that we'll take together. I'll leave space for things like sea shells/gems and the like.

I'm thinking though. She doesn't have any space in her bedroom for it.

Yeah go for it! This forum needs more project logs and this one looks very interesting.

Now that is a interesting project.

I pick it up in just over a week, but until then I'm trying trying to come up with ideas on what to put in the compartments.

Idea so far:

- Giant advent calendar. 25 random temporary compartments, half with large individual Hotel Chocolat chocolates inside, the other half with presents (I have a couple of tickets for certain things) and numbers that match to presents that will be underneath the table.

- The rest of the unused compartments will either have small photos (the larger sections) or shells/decoration.

I think the simple look, white on a dark stained wood, looks good enough. My problem is the border won't be as even as the example, as the ratio is out slightly.

If I can, I'll pop the border off and add my own so that it's equal all the way around.

Got a project like this in a woodworking magazine in PDF format, if you're interested in having a look I could email it to you.

I always wondered how these tables would sell to ppl who collect things like old watches and such like.

Just came back to this thread - darreny, if you'd be able to, that would be fantastic!

I've just collected the table, so work can now begin

Sorry for updating all at once, but the table is complete! Feel free to ask any questions, but to be fair, it was all done as a bit of a bodge!

Here are the table and printers block after some light sanding.



Now, this stage will jump past the cutting of the centre section, as to be honest, circular sawing a coffee table in your kitchen makes a mess (who'd have known?).

This step should have been straight forward, but the width of the printers block was a few mm wider than the both of the table support beams width. So as much as possible was cut out width ways, and the length was cut out just inside my sketch on the table top so that I could sand it to the perfect size.

I got it to a point where it just about fit, and some 'gentle' tapping with a mallet made it sit flush.

I then filled the areas where there were slight gaps and sanded it down.



The table was then ready for its paint!



To keep it simple I used some antique white one coat gloss. I had meant to buy satin but wasn't too bothered by the gloss look.



Next I turned it into an advent calendar.



Inside each door (from 17-25 (will explain later why only 9 doors)) I created an individual scroll and left a message written with a calligraphy pen indicating which present could be opened on that day (if it couldn't fit inside the door).

The presents were numbered 1-9 and assigned randomly, and then the presents put into each door in a particular order.






This was partly a birthday and christmas present, and I hadn't seen my girlfriend for 3 months and the 17th was the first day. 21st was a ring, but the scroll said it could not be opened until we got to London Bridge tube station, where all would be explained.

After leaving London Bridge station I told her we were going to the top of this:



Where she could open the present!

All in all, a success!