This hexagonal table finishes my gazebo!

I need a hexagonal table! After years of trying to fit square tables into my hexagonal gazebo, I said enough's enough. There are only a few designs that will work inside a hexagon: circular, equilateral triangle, or a true hexagon. Having designed and built the gazebo, I knew there would be serious challenges, but it's really the only right choice!

The gazebo, it's colors and dimensions dictated the design of the hexagonal table. The gazebo's interior dimension of 12' worked perfectly. It let me build a large table using the full 4' width of plywood as the tabletop insert. The final dimensions of the table with it's outer bezel ring is 4'3-1/2" between any of the parallel edges, and almost 5' across the diagonals.

The gazebo's pedestal and floor are of unglazed white marble ceramic tile, and to match, the table also uses white tile. To make it easier to clean, I chose highly polished marble porcelain tile and non sanded grout. The ultra dark black/red paint of the gazebo is matched by a custom blend of three wood stains: ebony, red mahogany, and cherry with a lustrous high gloss varnish.

This hexagonal table design was originally planed to use a circular pedestal base (like the picnic table to the gazebo's side in the photo above), but I couldn't find one! I decided to use an equilateral triangular base with three legs. This photo shows my corner table - from another project - inside the tabletop support ring - the real base is much larger.

Many of the components for this hexagonal table are unusually shaped, heavy, and required a lot of jigs to shape the pieces, and assemble them. The scrap 30-60 degree triangular cut-offs from the table top were critical later on for cutting the porcelain tile, but many of the engineering and design features were still to be decided.

I wanted gracefully tapered table legs, but the first set was wrong. I reused the taper jigs I had made for the square patio table, but these legs needed three taper cuts instead of two, and the side tapers were too steep. I reshaped one jig to cut a 1/2" taper over 28" and made three new legs. Those I liked!

My plan was to secure the legs to the inside of the triangular support structure. That would have left a lot more leg room, but it didn't work! My first trial fit showed there was insufficient stability. It was a little tipsy, but worse, it had no torsional stability; it spun like a carousel! I had to reattach the legs to the outside butts, and use both glue and huge carriage bolts - but it worked.

One of the most important design requirements for this hexagonal table was the connection between the table top and the base. Because of it's size and weight, it would be difficult to move as one unit. This rail feature lets the table top to be bolted to the base and leg assembly, but it took careful measurements to get it exactly centered!

Finally, with a corrected base design I could put the crowning glory on this hexagonal table - polished porcelain tile. I've worked with a lot of tile. The whole gazebo and it's pedestal use custom cut and fitted tile in concentric hexagonal rings. This was different; first it was porcelain instead of ceramic, and most of the tiles needed twelve cuts - six dry cuts, and six wet sawed bevels.

To build a hexagonal table, we have to lay out a perfect hexagon table top! I'll do the math for you, and show different techniques for building hexagons, either frame first, or by building a large compass and geometrically constructing it on a full sheet of plywood.

With the top done, we've got several wood projects going on all at once to build the major structural components. This is a big table and you'll see the various jigs I built for the complicated cuts, and as alignment aids for the many component assemblies.

Two of the critical steps of this project were the final finishes and furniture assembly. Both were a bear! I fought both weather and design issues. Here's tricks and tips for lustrous finishes, lay out, drilling, test set-ups, gluing, screwing, clamping and assembling.

The table top is everything, and I'll show you my tricks for cutting ceramic tile, both dry-cutting on a table saw, and finish bevels on a smaller wet saw. I'll also give tips on grouting that leaves a near mirror finish on the final top, whether it be a table or counter top.

Building fine furniture with materials available from any home improvement store is possible for anyone. I hope this hexagonal table proves that point, and encourages you to try!

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