I just delivered a walnut coffee table that I'm am really pleased with. The design brief from my customer was the following: "I'm looking for a 4' to 5' diameter round coffee table; I like mid century modern designs; I like walnut." I made one design sketch and he said, "I love it. Build it."

You can do a lot worse than Mid Century Modern design for inspiration. I wanted the tabletop to be solid wood, not veneered, and I located the legs at the edges for stability. And then I lost my mind for a minute and incorporated a slightly complicated form of mortise and tenon joinery to attach the legs to the top. Which meant the legs would have to be hand cut, shaped, and carved from large blocks of solid wood instead of simply turned on a lathe.

Happily, the joinery all worked out nice and crisp.

I'm really pleased with this piece. So is my customer. So is Rachel, but she was hoping the customer might change their mind so we could keep this table.