Free Plan: Mission Tabouret
Four splayed legs and one honest bevel cut — the 1909 side table that teaches you to saw.
Free download. No signup required.
- Full 1909 cut list
- Compound-bevel leg setup explained
- Pocket-hole shortcut for the rails
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Ted's Woodworking is a library of 16,000 woodworking plans with cut lists, measurements, and step-by-step instructions — from small side tables like this to full furniture projects. It fits builders who finish one piece and want the next one waiting. If you only ever wanted this tabouret, the plan above is all you need.
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Most tables hide their skill. This one puts it on display. The 1909 Mission tabouret is a small square side table — 17 inches across, nightstand height — and its four legs splay outward at the bottom. That splay is the whole project: every leg gets the same compound bevel, and matching them is what makes the table stand flat.
The plan walks through the cut list, the bevel setup, and the stretcher-and-rail joinery. The habit worth stealing: dial the bevel on scrap first, then cut all four legs in that one setup without changing a thing.
If mortises are not your thing yet, pocket holes handle the rails while you focus on the one cut that matters.
Project at a Glance
- Difficulty
- Beginner to intermediate (one skill-builder cut)
- Main materials
- White oak — four 7/8 x 4-3/4 x 18-1/2 inch legs, two lower stretchers, two upper rails, one 17 x 17 inch top
- Build time
- A weekend
- Tools needed
- Saw with a bevel setting, bevel gauge, chisel and mallet (or pocket-hole jig), sander, clamps, square
- Source
- Popular Mechanics, 1909 (public domain)
Before you cut the good oak:
Set the bevel on a scrap piece from the same stock and check it against the drawing. Adjust on the scrap, never on your legs. Once it reads right, cut all four legs in that one setup — same angle, same fence — so they come out a matched set.
A tabouret like this is the first real joinery test, and passing it changes what you reach for next. The bevel that felt hard on this table is the same cut behind chairs, stools, and tapered legs.
What usually follows is a bigger appetite than the plan pile can feed. Having the next project already drawn up is how one build becomes many.
Recommended Next Step
Your next project is already drawn up
Ted's Woodworking is a library of 16,000 woodworking plans with cut lists, measurements, and step-by-step instructions — from small side tables like this to full furniture projects. It fits builders who finish one piece and want the next one waiting. If you only ever wanted this tabouret, the plan above is all you need.
Ted's Woodworking
16,000 woodworking plans with cut lists and step-by-step instructions.
Disclosure: I may earn a commission if you buy through this link. It doesn't cost you extra.
Start with the tabouret plan
Download the Mission tabouret plan and build at your own pace. The plan is yours whether or not the library ends up on your bench.