How to make a Merbau outdoor long side board table?

kylieclueless

Hi All, 

I have  a beautiful outdoor high long table for entertaining. I would like to make a sideboard table in Merbau to  match. 

I have never made anything with timber, not familiar with tools though hubby has a shed full. I just need a project I think it would be easy enough. Where do I start? I want think legs and the top. Any help for a noosa of where to begin would be great. 🙏🏻

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @kylieclueless. It's terrific to have you join us, and many thanks for your question on building a sideboard table.

That sounds like an excellent project, and a great way to match your existing table. To get a similar look in sideboard form, you could build it almost entirely from 90mm Merbau decking boards.

 

For the legs, you’ve got two options: use solid 90x90mm Merbau posts, or, if you want to keep costs down, you can take two decking boards  and screw them together at right angles to create the appearance of chunky legs.

 

From there, use 42x42mm Merbau battens to build a simple rectangular frame for the top. Make sure to include cross-members so you’ll have something solid to screw your top boards into. Fix the legs onto the corners of this frame.

 

Once the base is together, lay 90mm decking boards across the top and secure them with stainless steel decking screws. For a more custom look, you could frame the top with 140mm Merbau boards to mimic your main table.

 

A good tip is to use PVA wood glue along with decking screws on all joins for extra strength. Take it step by step and you’ll end up with a really solid and great-looking sideboard.

 

I've created the rendering below to assist with construction.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Mitchell