Free Plan: Pixelated End Table
No legs to turn, no joints to cut — a side table built entirely from glued blocks.
Free download. No signup required.
- Full block grid and cut list
- Staged glue-up sequence
- Router sled flattening setup
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- 16,000 plans, each with a cut list, measurements and step-by-step instructions. Furniture, shop jigs, outdoor builds, beginner to advanced.
- What to print first: search the library for a coffee table or a bench to match this end table. Same offcuts, fewer glue-ups, one more cut list.
- Sold through ClickBank with a 60-day money-back guarantee. Look through a dozen plans, and if it isn't for you, you get your money back.
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Project and images adapted from ZacBuilds on Instructables, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
This side table has no legs to turn and no joinery to cut. It is built from small hardwood blocks, stacked and glued in a grid, and the stepped pixel pattern appears on its own as the layers come together.
The material is offcuts — roughly 30 board feet of scrap in two contrasting tones. The skill is patience, because the build runs through several glue-up phases and each one needs to cure before the next.
The plan covers the block sizing, the grid layout, the mirrored ends, the router sled used to flatten the finished faces, and the sanding and finishing order.
Project at a Glance
- Difficulty
- Intermediate (no joinery, but milling and many staged glue-ups)
- Main materials
- About 30 board feet of hardwood scrap in two contrasting tones — 1 x 1 inch blocks, 2 to 9 inches long, a 3 x 3 x 23 inch central column, two 11 x 11 grids
- Build time
- 3-5 days, including staged glue-ups
- Tools needed
- Jointer, planer, table saw, miter saw, 10 to 12 clamps, router with a flattening sled, square
- Source
- ZacBuilds on Instructables (CC BY 4.0)
Before the first glue-up:
Clamp a straight batten to your bench and wax it so glue will not stick. Press every layer against that same edge instead of against the block below it. A stack built piece-to-piece drifts a little further with every row; a stack built against one fixed reference does not. And work in small sub-assemblies — three or four blocks at a time — because a tall stack of loose blocks under clamp pressure slides faster than you can push it back.
A build like this rewards technique rather than tooling. There is no machine that saves you here — just squareness, glue discipline, and knowing what a clean surface should feel like before the finish goes on.
That is the part most of us picked up slowly, one mistake at a time. It goes faster when the next project is already drawn, with its cut list and its glue-up order written down before the first block is cut.
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 end table 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.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
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.
See the book →