Small Table or Stool, Multi Function

Here’s a simple chair side table or stool design that I like to build. I call it the Upper Cumberland, named after the region in Tennessee where I live. It’s great for use a table to eat from. The shelf underneath is useful for my favorite reading material so that it’s easily accessible for dining and reading. The table also doubles as a stool when I have folks over to play music. Someone will either sit on it while playing banjo, guitar, mandolin, etc. It’s also a handy place to have song lyrics so that we can glance at them when needed.

This particular piece is made from 100 year old, or older, barn wood. I think that the species is maple. The unusual looking grain pattern is actually the weathering lines that are revealed after planing the wood down to a smooth surface. This wood, whatever it is, is extremely hard and dense. In fact, it’s as hard as Chinese arithmetic!

The lumber came from the sides of the barn here on my place, which is undergoing a continuing remodel. Part of the barn is now my woodworking shop. I hope to have the barn finished sometime during my lifetime. One thing’s for sure; being the scavenger that I am, I save every usable piece of lumber that I take down. I’m told by an old timer who has lived in this holler all of his life that the barn was already well aged when he was a kid. The lumber was harvested from this land where my home is.

-- Build for the joy of it!