Making Saloon Bar tables

The inside of my saloon (so far) with tables in use.

One of my current projects is a saloon in an old Duracraft Deluxe Victorian dollhouse I came across. I needed tables to fill it, and took some photos of the steps I took.

Materials needed-A cardboard tube cut to the height I wanted, pictured in lower right corner, some crafty clamps I got from my local dollar tree, jumbo craft sticks, miter shears to cut them with, glue, and a wooden disk I got at Walmart.

I happened to have some handy dandy thick cardboard tubes lying around, but you might be able to use any tube–maybe even a toilet paper roll. I cut it to the height I wanted for my tables. This tube will be the base for the table.

Cutting the craft sticks with miter shears.

Cut the round ends off a jumbo craft stick, and then measure it against your cardboard tube. Cut several sticks to fit around the tube.

Gluing craft stick boards to the cardboard base.

Glue and clamp the craft sticks in place around the tube, using clamps to hold the first few in place, then eventually placing the rubber band to keep them all on. (My clamps were too big to clamp all of them at once, so I kept the first few clamped while I placed the rest, then added the rubber bands so they all stayed put.)

Rubber band in place, glued to the table top disk.

Next, after my rubber bands were in place, I centered and glued the table base to the bottom of the wood disk tabletop.

Adding boards to the tabletop.

After the glue is dry, I cut some craft sticks to fit the top of the table. Next I glued and clamped them until they were dry.

Finished table.

When the glue is dry, check the base to make sure it is level enough so you don’t have a crooked tabletop. I ended up sanding the bottoms of mine with rough paper to get them more level. You can also use fine sand paper to soften some of the edges and prepare for a finish of your choice, or leave it for a rough texture. I might eventually use a wood stain and varnish on these. For now, I will leave them until I get a feel for the colors I want in my saloon.

Feel free to comment with any questions or suggestions! Thank you.