Furniture · Case study
Stained Pine Oval Table
- Location
- Wahroonga, NSW
- Year
- 2026
- Duration
- 4 weeks
- Category
- Furniture
1.6 metre oval-top occasional table, solid Australian pine top, twin pedestal trestle base joined by a single stretcher, espresso stain, hand-rubbed satin finish.
Why this needed an engineer.
Pine is a softwood. Working it like a hardwood gives you a soft surface that dents the first time something heavy lands on it. Working it like the cheap framing timber it usually is gives you a piece that looks rough. The brief was a piece that reads like solid hardwood furniture, on a softwood budget. The oval top added a second problem: pine moves with humidity more than hardwood does, and an oval top has no shoulder to brace against. Without the right joinery the top would cup, then crack at the glue lines within a year.
The engineering thinking.
Top is six pine boards edge-jointed with biscuits and titebond, with the end-grain runout alternating so the seasonal movement averages out across the panel. Top is fixed to the base with figure-8 fasteners (slotted, not bolted) so it can breathe across the grain without splitting at the joint. Twin pedestal base is half-lapped at the cross member, with a wedged through-tenon at the floor stretcher so it can be knocked apart for moving without losing the joint. Finish is three coats of espresso stain knocked back with 320 grit between coats, then four coats of hand-rubbed oil-wax to seal the surface without the plasticky look a polyurethane gives pine.
- Australian radiata pine (solid)
- Biscuit joinery + titebond III adhesive
- Figure-8 top fasteners
- Penetrating espresso stain
- Hand-rubbed oil-wax satin finish
A piece that looks like a hundred-year-old library table at a quarter of the cost of doing it in oak. The base disassembles for moving (we built it for a client who knew they were renovating their house in two years and didn't want a permanent piece). Three months in, no movement.
Commission
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