Mission-style furniture is most often identified by its clean, straight lines. You won't find any curved legs or fancy etchings on a mission table. However, some mission-style furniture has a unique trademark. Rows of wooden bars are sometimes found in these designs. With mission tables, these bars are sometimes found in the frame of the table. If you decide to make a mission-style table, the same rules apply as for making any kind of table.
Style
First, choose a wood that best fits the mission style. This can be an oak or a cherry wood. The goal is to choose a wood with an interesting wood pattern. Then choose your design. Since mission furniture traditionally has straight lines, your table legs will be square all the way around. You can either have a completely straight table leg from top to bottom or you can give it a bit of a taper. Avoid having a large angle to your tapered legs.
Cutting
Your first step in the actual cutting and assembly will be the tabletop. Determine the length of the tabletop. To get the mission influence, the table top should be a square or rectangle. Stay away from circular designs.
Map out the dimensions of your table top and cut out the wood with a band saw. Make sure that your lengths are accurate.
You can design the frame of the table a few different ways. If you want to keep the design simple, just choose the table leg you want to use. Take your four table legs and connect them to the table top with dowels. You can also add a border around the table and create a tenon and mortise. The mortise is a rectangular groove in the border below the table top. You will create four of these mortises to accommodate the tenons on the top of your table legs. A tenon, or wooden block, will connect the table leg to the mortise.
Mission look
The table legs are a great way to give your table a true mission style look. Consider installing a row of wood columns between the legs on the left and right sides of the table. To do this, install a runner between the legs on these two sides. The runner will connect to the table legs by a tenon and mortise system.
Once the runner is in, you can decide how many of these wood columns you want. Create mortise grooves in the top of the runner and the bottom of the tabletop. Cut out the wood columns so that they are all the same length and dimension. Each column should have a wooden projection on each end. Fill each mortise with a wood glue and slide the columns into place. You can use a wood clamp between the runner and the table top to secure the pieces together.
Tags: table legs, your table, wood columns, bars sometimes, bars sometimes found,