Questionable Leg Table

West Indies Mahogany, Polyurethane finish, 48″ Wide, 36″ High, 10″ Deep

The questionable-leg table series began rather innocently. We were renting an older house in Lexington, KY while Chris was finishing her Doctorate. The main bath had a pedestal sink and no counter upon which to put one’s toiletries. The solution, I reasoned, was to create a table to suit the need, fitting within the limits of the bathroom space. And I did just that, beautiful piece of Mahogany, and four gently tapering legs. When the finish was dry I brought it home and set it in place. Chris admired it, said it was beautiful and then said “Too bad you didn’t make one leg different.” Her comment arose from seeing tables done in wrought iron while we were in Paris. The artist there had a style wherein three legs were identical and one was “out there”, either twisted, bowed, bellied, or corkscrewed. I took the table back to my studio and cut off one leg. A host of possible shapes appeared in my mind’s eye as I held the cut off leg. I wondered how I would attach the new design and I wondered what I would do with this left over leg. Placing the leg back from where I had just cut it off and off-setting it a bit, got me thinking. I could see off-setting a 6″ section, like a brick out of alignment. And what if I had two pieces out of straight? The dominoes then fell, as it were, and I kept cutting the leg into different lengths and various angles. It was a challenge to epoxy the leg back together in some sort of generally vertical pattern. And I thought the whole leg was questionable.

I have just begun to explore the possibilities of this concept but here are two more “Questionable” projects.