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From the Fall 2010 Pottery Barn Catalog
In 2004, a year before I joined the Popular Woodworking Magazine staff, I was co-author, with John McGuane, of “The Essential Pine Book,” which “Includes 12 Furniture Projects Utilizing This Versatile Wood.” But this is not a sales pitch – the book has been out of print for a while (though I’ve seen a copy or two at Half-Price Books, for less than half price, which is a wee bit depressing). Or perhaps this is an unwitting sales pitch after all – for Pottery Barn.
When I got home from work yesterday, I pulled the new Pottery Barn catalog from my mailbox, opened it, and on page 4 saw a familiar item. Darn if their “Toscana Trestle Table” isn’t a near-twin of the one project I built for that book (I was mostly the hunter, gatherer and editor for the front section on various types of pine – and this was the first “real” woodworking project I built).
My table.
Let’s compare. According to PB’s description, the Toscana table has:
• X-shaped supports. Check.
• Keyed through-tenons. Check.
• Crafted from pine solids and pine veneers. Pine veneers? Really? Uncheck. I used solid sugar pine.
• Planked top and eased edges. Check.
• Two 18″ breadboard leaves. Check – sort of. Mine doesn’t have leaves, but it does have breadboard ends.
• Comfortably accommodates up to 10. Check (actually, 12, if you have narrow chairs and don’t mind minimal personal space).
• “Finish is a 14-step process with hand-applied layers, hand distressing and burnished edges.” Um, no. I did not apply 14 layers of finish. But my finish is applied by hand. And after six years of Thanksgiving dinners and other uses it is certainly hand-distressed (and elbow-distressed and wine-spill-distressed).
• $1,299. Uncheck. If I recall correctly, the sugar pine cost somewhere around $600, and I also bought a handful of dowels, a can of gel stain and some wiping poly (and there’s not a lick of hardware in it). So I’m guessing it cost less that $650 all told. Sure, the price of pine has likely increased since, but I’m guessing the total expenditure would still be far less than $1,300.
• Propped with chairs, table settings and over-the-top decorations. OK – they win that one.
I guess this isn’t a sales pitch after all. In fact, it’s an anti-sales pitch. You can download, free, the plans and instructions below. This is the only time in my entire life I’ve been ahead of the curve on what’s fashionable – in any milieu.
— Megan Fitzpatrick
C. Schwarz: Here is Megan’s author photo from 2004. Sassy!
• If you’re looking for nice projects for which pine is a suitable wood choice, check out “Country Pine Furniture Projects,” by Bill Hylton (it’s among the 750+ new books, CDs and DVDs we’ve recently added to WoodworkersBookShop.com).
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Weird.
I googled sarcasm gone awry and it brought me here… hmmm.
Blaine, I’m with you.
And Chris, the Francis comment caused me to spew my soda out of my nose. Thanks for being our Big Toe.
Well, I for one saw the humor in the email and the blog. If you read very much of the writing of the Popular Woodworking editors, particularly that of Chris and Megan, you’ll know that a lot of it is written to be humorous and sometimes self-depricating. It’s a style that’s entertaining and easy to read. For an example, read the next full article in the weekly email: "Our Editor’s Award for the Weirdest Tool Ever"
Nice job on your table, Megan. You go, girl!
Well by now in looking at either table’s base you can see where the term sawbuck for a ten dollar bill and double sawbuck for a twenty came from. X, XX. The finishing process is described as "Finish is a 14-step process with hand-applied layers" I will asume the the finish process involved sanding with 3 grits of abrasive (3 steps), blowing the sanding dust off after each grit (3 more steps), tack rag (1 additional step), stain (that brings us up to 8 steps) 2 coats of varnish ( ten total steps) Place 4 hens on table gives 4 more layers for a total of 14 steps.
"Madman"
When I got the email titled "A Trestle Table So Good it Was Ripped Off" with a link titled "Imitation is Flattery" to an article listing 6 or 7 similarities between the two tables and stating that the Pottery Barn table’s design was "borrowed" and that the author didn’t know she was so ahead of the fashion curve, for some reason I thought that you meant to say that the design for the Potter Barn table had been ripped off or borrowed from a design the author did years ago.
Sorry, I guess I misunderstood.
There’s one big difference, Megan. Your table is a lovely piece of furniture and their monstrosity looks like a picnic table brought indoors!
Mr. Schwarz
Perhaps this didn’t seem "lighthearted" to some of us (from the Wood News email):
"But the biggest shock recently has been how one furniture catalog looks like it has "borrowed" a design from Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick. You can judge for yourself by checking out her story below. This isn’t the first time this has happened to us, but I guess all is fair in love and wooden furniture."
And since you did say "judge for yourself," I certainly did.
Hey Megan,
Remember when we started out building the table with a set of X-legs that had radical curves in them? And, that it became a nightmare to try and put them together because we ran into some cross-grain issues that compromised the strength of the legs. (Those legs were my idea.)
You decided that the simpler X-legs would be better and you were right.
Glad to hear the table is still serving you well.
Jim Stack
Lighten up Francis. Or should I say Franci?
This was a lighthearted way to give you a free plan. It was my idea, not Megan’s. So I think you can stop Googling "trestle table" and go back to some nice time in the shop. We never thought we invented the X trestle design, but we did think this was a funny entry.
Guess I was wrong.
Chris, who is going back to the shop to cut some trim.
TDE (et al),
Goodness. This was supposed to be merely a lighthearted observation that the two tables are awfully similar in design – and a free plan to build a quite similar one for less money (and perhaps more satisfaction). Obviously I’m aware that the design – as well as all things woodworking – predates my existence (after all, as I mentioned in the book chapter, I was copying a design I’d seen elsewhere). Sorry if you found it arrogant or ignorant. I’m neither, thanks.
The trestle table with X shaped legs and a stretcher through the center of the X dates back to, at least, Roman Times.
If you do a google image search for "x shaped trestle table" you will get quite a few results. Here is one from (supposedly) 1850: http://www.arcadiaantiques.co.uk/details.asp?pid=1316&pname=Bleached+Vineyard+Table&catid=18&catname=TABLES&subcatid=0.
Here’s another from (supposedly) 1800: http://www.arcadiaantiques.co.uk/details.asp?pid=780&pname=Original+Painted+Trestle+Table&catid=18&catname=TABLES&subcatid=13
I don’t know whether claiming that "design" as one’s very own is more arrogant or ignorant. (I mean, really, did you invent the concept of "easing" the edge all on your own? What in the world did people do with all of that sharp-edged furniture for thousands of years before you came up with the idea?)
Factory furniture needs 14 coats of finish to minimize the grain (& sometimes wood) mismatch to keep costs down. Maybe that’s why it’s lot darker than Megan’s version.
And, if you litter the table adequately, your attention is drawn away from the object you’re supposed to be inspecting: the table. Pottery Bran will sell you thetable, and a whole lot more
I can’t believe that the "Weekly Wood News" email I got had the title "A Trestle Table so Good it was Ripped Off." I just had to laugh, was Mr. Schwarz serious? As Dreamcatcher says, that table design has been used for hundreds and hundreds of years. For Ms. Fitzpatrick to even attempt initially to take credit for it’s design is unbelieveable.
Unable to open the file for the plans. I can open other ".pdf" documents, but not this one.
Thanks for all the kind comments!
Dreamcatcher,
You’re right of course — I didn’t independently come up with a never-before-seen design. And honestly, I seriously doubt PB saw my book or table design. It was just surprising how extremely close the two are in design. And yes, Pine is a non-traditional choice for an old-world table, but it fit with the book theme…and my budget. Reclaimed Jacobean oak simply wasn’t a viable option. Were I to make this table on commission, I would of course charge more than simply my materials cost – and it would be more than $1,300. However, I would use solid lumber (no pine veneers), and it would be handmade, which almost always comes at a premium.
BTW – If anyone is building this table, were I to do another one, the one thing I’d change is to eschew the chamfers on the edges of the planks that comprise the top – excellent crumb catcherS, those chamfers…
Megan, I don’t understand what your gripe is with the Pottery Barn ripping you off since your table design is not itself original; beautiful and well crafted but not original. That is an 1st century Roman designed campaign table that was re-popularized in the 12th century and again in the 19th century Europe. I have seen countless examples and variations of this table through the years, both old and new.
While it is unusual to see this table design constructed out of pin as traditional material choices were white oak, cypress, or sycamore. Still I doubt you were the first to do that either.
Also, I would like to know (just out of hypothetical curiosity) if you were to build another table and sell it how much would you sell it for? I am guessing your retail price would be closer to $1300 than to $650.
Great looking table, Megan – and sassy is right!
Their table looks like their chairs… clunky. Maybe it’s the photography, but your tone of finish seems nicer, the plumb cuts on the legs add to the overall simple elegance of the piece, and the overall lightness of your table is much more appealing.
Cost versus price is another whole discussion.
Get Chris to make you 10 nice Windsor chairs. He knows how.
I like your photo too.
Hmm – I suspect that with the materials and labor that you put into your table, it "cost" a lot more than $1300, and it’s worth a lot more than that as well. Seems to me that you might have a design copyright suit as well, should you decide to pursue it.
Many of the bigger kitchy retailers have been ripping off designs from small woodowrking firms of late – possibly because they know they’re small and don’t have the time, funds or energy to pursue legal remedies.
Nice photo, btw, espeically if you took it. It’s not easy to do that (30+ years as a semi-pro photographer has taught me that people are one of the most difficult subjects to photograph…)
David
Raleigh NC
Wow!!
Pottery Barn X Table "Propped with chairs, table settings and over-the-top decorations" is nothing when compared with "The Essential Pine Book Table" with "Megan propped, set and over-the-top" of the table… I’ll pay more than $2K for that!!!
What a fantastic ‘coup’ for you. Missed seeing you at WIA.
Absolutely wonderful article and well deserving of a pat on the back.
It’s a good thing I’m happily married: the glasses really top it off (and I don’t mean the ones on the table).
Thanks for that, Chris. Lest anyone has forgotten…check out the bottom picture here:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog/ripped-from-the-headlines
Even without all the decorations and chairs, your table is MUCH better design-wise. Theirs is far too blocky.