The challenge: To figure out if this coffee table could be pumped up to dining-table size.

“Do you think you could enlarge the design?”

That’s a good question for almost any furniture design. It’s also an intriguing challenge that whets the appetite of any designer. I was game.

At first glance, the coffee table looked like it could be sized larger with very little re-design. Add a bigger top; make the legs taller; lengthen the stretchers, adding perhaps more thickness to carry the extra load.

No problem. No problem, that is, if you forget that people have legs, which includes knees and feet.

On the coffee table, there’s little need to accommodate a sitter’s legs. However, for a work table, the extra room below is paramount. And in this table, if you removed the lower stretcher assembly, which would give free range to a sitter’s appendages, the table would certainly wobble back and forth. Triangulation is the key to sturdy construction, and unless the upper framework could be made to withstand racking, some form of lower connection would be necessary to keep the table stable.

To help me out, one of the editors at Fine Woodworking.Com drew up a few ideas, using Google SketchUp . The results were interesting, but the design had moved boldly away from the initial intent. My original idea was to create a table that appeared to ‘float’ above its frame. To achieve this effect, it was necessary to have a rail structure immediately below the outer edges of the tabletop, but with some space between top and rails, to accentuate the floating idea. The new sketches tucked the framework too deeply under the top. The result? The floating effect was lost.

Sketches show something different. A few drawings made in Google SketchUp show that room for the sitter is possible, but now the table looks nothing like the original.

The next step? Back to the drawing table. I made a sketch based on photos of some old English tavern tables I had seen over the years. The tables had lower stretchers that actually rested on the floor, allowing a sitter to place their feet directly on them. I distinctly remember the surfaces of the stretchers, which were heavily worn from decades of restless shoes and boots. With this design, the lower stretchers would support and triangulate the frame without getting in the way of the sitter’s feet or knees. Cool. Let’s draw it up. I noticed right away that the design still offered plenty of joinery to challenge students.

Braced down low. Lower stretchers that sit directly on the floor allow sitters to place their feet upon them, letting them pull in tight to the table to drink, eat or work.

A drawing on paper is still my favorite method of exploring a design, but two dimensions always lack the flavor of the real thing. To see the table better, I made yet another scale model. This time, it looked like it could work on a functional level while still maintaining the floating-top effect.

Is the new design a success? Most likely. But you never really know until you make something full size. Stay tuned.

Modeling the real thing. A scale model of the new design reveals there’s plenty of room for sitters while the top still appears to hover above the frame.