Side table with dog bed
| Materials | Birch plywood |
| Dimensions | L 28" x W 20" x H 21" |
| Completed | July 2026 |
| Notes | Birch plywood for entire piece. Stained with Varathane Dark Walnut Classic Interior Wood Stain and finished with Varathane Ultimate Water-Based Polyurethane (water poly). |
Construction
The idea was to have a dog-crate bed that doubled as a side table. Originally the idea was to have a grid of windows in the sides, however that transitioned to circular openings for manufacturing reasons.
The biggest unknown in the project was the feasibility of the curved corners using plywood, so I created a test piece first.
A 90 degree bend can be achieved by kerf cutting, which is where multiple cuts mostly-through plywood (but not all the way through) are made close together, allowing space to bend the plywood. Then, hot water is poured all over to soften up the wood and then the plywood is clamped into a 90 degree shape. I created some 90 degree bend wood scrap pieces to clamp to.
Circular openings are much easier to precisely cut since you only need to set the center of a hole saw. A grid of rectangular shapes has many more points of failure in alignment.
