Bailey Console Table by Ana White

The Bailey Console Table is a design by the always-fabulous Ana White. She developed these plans as part of an Instagram challenge hosted by Raechal at Desert Woodworks. The instructions were to build the console table and modify it to your own style. The entries were judged by David Sheinkopf and Ana White – a job I sure didn’t envy, because there were so many gorgeous entries.

Can I tell you something? I have been blogging for exactly 2 months and 3 weeks. I think there may be something about not admitting that, but there you have it. Turns out it is a bit of work, putting yourself out there. There are so many amazing, talented bloggers that it feels somewhat audacious to present another blog to the world and beg “please, follow me…like me!” But, see, I happen to love to writing, photography, and woodworking. So launching a website felt inevitable.

But wait, there’s more. It’s a good day for confessions. I have been woodworking for about a year. Two years ago my husband and I completely renovated our home. With two babies in tow. My husband had renovated before. He grew up working with his grandfather, who was a developer and master workman. So, he knew what he was doing. Me? I just have a tendency to dive into the deep end and learn like my life depends on it.

While renovating I started refinishing furniture. From there I began dabbling in creating original pieces, mostly artistic. Once we sold that home and moved back to our original home (long story) the renovation projects were a thing of the past…and we missed them. So I turned my attention to building. Having one of my pieces go madly astray was the beginning of deciding to really learn about the science of woodworking and starting down the eternal road that is the artistry of working with wood.

Are you still with me? Sorry, I told you I enjoyed writing. If your eyes haven’t glazed over we are now at the point of all this. I am passionate about creativity and love woodworking, but I’m still pretty dern new. So I entered the challenge both to get my blog out there and to challenge myself.

You read a lot. Here is a photo.

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The basic structure of the console table went up quickly. Ana White is a genius at building plans and if you have built one before you know they are simple to follow.

At the time that I was building this I was also building custom closet shelving in our master bedroom, so I ended up creating a total of 10 drawers from scratch in pretty close order. For the console I decided to keep to the plan of having two large drawers (for functionality), but to make it appear that it had lots of smaller drawers. For visual interest I wanted them to be a bit asymmetrical. I created faux drawers before when I made an apothecary cabinet that actually contains four large shelves.

I’ll get around to covering that one of these days.

That brings me to confession #3. I didn’t photograph the faux drawer process. Oops. Essentially I created the drawer with a 3/4 front, and left a 1/4 gap for the faux fronts. I  glued the pieces to the front in the pattern I wanted, with strips of wood between the “drawers” to make it appear that they were set in to the front.

Here’s a closer look. The Hardware is here and here.

 

And here is how it all turned out.

 

I was happy with it, and as an added bonus, the judges were, too. I was thrilled when my build took second place. This was a super fun build and an even more fun challenge. I hope you like it, too!

Happy building!

 

**UPDATE**

I had this in our dining room for about a year and decided it was time for a change. A quick coat of paint later, and it’s a whole new look!