Free Plan: Mission Hall Tree

One post, four arms, and eight braces that all belong in the base — the 1912 Mission hall tree.

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  • Full PDF plan
  • Cut list & dimensions
  • 14 steps with mortise layout
Mission style hall tree in pale unstained oak, one tall square post with four short cross posts, angled braces and beveled tops, four metal hooks

The entryway is the first thing anybody sees, and in most houses it is the last thing anybody builds for. This one takes a few days and a lot of careful marking.

The plan comes from Mission Furniture, How To Make It, Part 3, published by Popular Mechanics in 1912 and long out of copyright. It is one main post fifty-nine inches tall, four short cross posts, eight braces and four arms, all joined with mortise and tenon. The braces all sit in the two-tier base; the upper arms are straight hook carriers with no diagonals, whatever the old drawing suggests. Metal hooks go on last. The beveled tops are the detail that makes the piece read as furniture rather than as a coat rack.

It is the simplest construction in the whole Mission hall set, which is exactly why the layout matters more than the joinery. Every joint in the piece lands on that one post. Mark all of them before you cut any of them, working from one end and one reference face, and the piece comes out true. Mark them one at a time off the last fitted part and every small error stacks upward — by the top arm it is visible, on a piece that is nothing but vertical lines.

Project at a Glance

Difficulty
Intermediate (four-way mortised assembly on one post)
Main materials
Quarter-sawn oak, four metal hooks, glue, finish
Build time
2-3 shop days, plus finish
Tools needed
Mortising tools, miter saw, drill, square, clamps, scraper, sandpaper
Joinery
Mortise and tenon throughout
Safety
Tall, narrow and top-loaded — see the note below before you stand it up
Source
Popular Mechanics Handbooks, 1912 (public domain)

Before you cut:

Lay the main post on the bench and mark every mortise in one session, all of them measured from the same end and squared off the same face. It feels slower and it is not. A spacing that is wrong on a pencil line costs you an eraser; the same error found after four joints are chopped costs you the post. Bevel all four post tops while the parts are still loose and small — the identical cut on a standing five-foot assembly is a different job entirely.

The layout rule in that tip is not really about hall trees. It is about working from a reference instead of from the last part you touched, and it shows up in every case side, every leg set, every row of shelf pins you will ever mark out.

Every plan worth printing works from that rule: one reference face, all the marks before the first cut. Once the hall tree is up, the entryway asks for a bench or a mirror, and that is the point where a single plan turns into a library.

What one of the plans looks like

One plan, front to back

Every plan in the library comes with the same three things: a cut list you can total before the lumber run, measurements on every part so nothing gets scaled off a photo, and step-by-step instructions from rough stock to finish. That is the layer this hall tree plan gave you, sixteen thousand more times.

The library covers furniture, shop jigs, outdoor builds and small projects, beginner to advanced. It works with a few hand tools or a full shop, and you keep it for good.

See what's inside Ted's library →

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Also worth a look: the technique layer

Woodworking Secrets is a printed book on layout, cutting, joinery and finishing, the part a plan leaves out. The publisher sends it at no charge and you cover the shipping. It ships to US addresses. On the order page there is a box for a trial membership that is already ticked — untick it if you only want the book.

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