Cedar shows up a lot in outdoor furniture for good reason, it’s naturally rot-resistant and stable, so it holds up whether a piece ends up on a covered patio or inside next to the couch. This coffee table leans into that flexibility: a simple box-and-shelf shape, dressed up with mitered “waterfall” corners that carry the top’s plank grain straight down each end.
Overview
The table is built as two closed end “boxes,” each mitered so the cedar grain on the tabletop appears to flow continuously down the outside face of the leg, the classic waterfall look, done here in solid cedar plank rather than veneered plywood. Each end box has an open shelf partway down, creating a cubby on either side rather than a single closed cabinet. The top itself is made from cedar boards with noticeably different natural tones side by side, pale sapwood streaks next to warmer, reddish heartwood, which reads as an intentional, rustic mixed-tone look rather than a flaw.
The whole piece was built and photographed unstained first, then finished in a dark walnut/espresso-toned stain that deepens and unifies those natural tone variations while still letting the grain show through.
Materials
- Cedar boards, used for the tabletop, the waterfall end panels, and the shelf/apron pieces. The species isn’t specified in the photos, but the knot pattern and color range are consistent with a common dimensional cedar.
- Wood stain, a dark walnut/espresso-toned stain applied over the raw cedar for the finished look; the specific product isn’t legible in any photo.
No plywood, hardware, or fastener packaging is visible clearly enough in the photos to confirm brands or sizes beyond what’s called out in Design Details below.
Tools
The only tool clearly visible in the build photos is a sliding compound miter saw (a DeWalt, based on the visible branding), set up on its rolling stand in a driveway alongside sawhorses. A tape measure and a spiral notebook holding a handwritten cut sheet also appear in the same shot, though the notes themselves aren’t legible enough to transcribe.
Design Details Worth Calling Out
Mitered waterfall corners. Rather than a butt joint at each end, the tabletop’s cedar planks are mitered so the same boards appear to continue, uninterrupted, down the outside face of each end box. It’s a more demanding cut than a square end, but it’s what gives the piece its “waterfall” look and makes the mixed-tone plank pattern read as one continuous surface rather than a table with separate legs bolted on.
Exposed top fasteners. The tabletop planks appear to be fastened from above with countersunk screws left exposed rather than hidden, visible as a regular grid of small round marks running down each board. That’s a straightforward, durable way to attach a plank top, though it does mean the fastener heads are part of the visible finish rather than plugged or hidden underneath.
Small corner feet. Each leg sits on a small separate block of wood at the floor, visibly distinct from the leg itself. These read as simple feet raising the base slightly off the floor rather than confirmed adjustable/leveling hardware, worth confirming with Jeremy before describing them as “leveling feet” in any future copy.
Build Process
Cutting. Legs and apron/end pieces were cut to length on the miter saw shown above, with cut lengths tracked in a handwritten notebook.
Dry-fit, unstained. The assembled box was photographed unstained in several settings, the garage and the driveway, showing the mixed-tone plank top and both open end shelves clearly before any finish was applied.
Staining and finishing. The table was finished in a dark walnut/espresso-toned stain, which unified the mixed cedar tones into one deeper color while keeping the grain visible. One photo shows several unstained cedar boards laid diagonally across the already-finished, stained top, with a small pile of stained cutoff pieces on the ground nearby, most likely a color-match or fit check for additional boards, though the exact purpose isn’t confirmed.
The Finished Table
The finished, stained table is shown styled poolside against brick coping, a setting that plays to cedar’s natural durability outdoors, though nothing in the photos confirms whether this table’s final home is indoors, outdoors, or both.
Related Projects
This table sits naturally alongside the site’s other coffee table builds, a chevron-top coffee table and a minimal modern coffee table both exist in the project archive and would make sense as “more coffee tables” cross-links once each has its own published post.