A Classic Parsons Table

Google 'Parsons Table' and you get dozens, no thousands of images of flat toppped, four legged tables. And in Wikipedia we find ... "While the form is generally credited to Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, according to an article in The New York Times that referred to archives at the Parsons School, the table developed out of a course taught at the school's Paris branch by the French designer Jean-Michel Frank in the 1930s.

As the article states, "Frank challenged students to design a table so basic that it would retain its integrity whether sheathed in gold leaf, mica, parchment, split straw or painted burlap, or even left robustly unvarnished. What grew out of Frank's sketches and the students' participation was initially called the T-square table ... " The first example, as recalled by Parsons instructor Stanley Barrows, was constructed by the school's janitor and displayed at a student show.

Well, simple to design for sure. Kind of like a little kid's drawing ... Think about making one that will have a smooth glossy fancy finish and the problems multiply. 'No Seams !' was the instruction from the designer we are working with. 'No Seasonal Movement !' is what I heard when she said that. We chose 1" veneer core maple plywood for stability and had at it ... Click the photos to enlarge them ,,, First we made the hollow legs, mitered them to a point and cut off the unmitered corner with the chop saw...

A little glue and some spacer blocks at the bottom and we had our two short ends below
We used dominos in the joints of the short ends but they caused more trouble than they were worth when it came to clamping up the long sides so we just made two pieces of mdf below, clamped the short ends to them and fitted the long rails while they were clamped up ... Theory is theory, reality is reality ...
This was definitely the way to go ...
It all worked out fine ... a little sanding tomorrow and out the door to New York for the 'special finish' ... I hope to see a photo when they're done ... Looks easier than it was ...
Ready to roll 11/18/2010 .... 2.75" square legs and aprons, 15 x 66 x 36 high ... dimensions by Elizabeth Bauer Interiors ...