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5 pieces + 12 screws=1 great project.
Here’s a great project for displaying houseplants and adding a little charm to any corner of your house. The tripod leg design is rocksteady, even on a tiled or uneven floor. The wide bottom shelf can hold a large potted plant and anchors the stand both visually and physically.
The open top shelf can handle a variety of plant or pot shapes and sizes. This stand is made with riftsawn white oak. The oak fits the stand’s Mission style and the straight riftsawn grain emphasizes the vertical thrust of the long tapered legs.
Mission Plant Stand Cutlist and Diagrams
The Build
Don’t let the angles scare you; this stand is easy to build. First glue up blanks for the top and bottom shelf (A and B, Fig. A).
1. Cut the bottom dado with the blade tilted at 8-degrees and the fence set at 7-in.
Finish sand the blanks to their final thickness. Cut the leg blanks (C) to size, but leave them rectangular for now. Next, head to the tablesaw and cut the angled dados on the leg blanks (Photos 1 and 2).
2. Move the fence over to the left side of the blade to cut the top dado. Set the fence 1-1/2-in. from the blade for this cut.
Note: The photos show a right-tilt saw. For a left-tilt saw, the fence positions are just the opposite.
3. Taper the legs on a bandsaw. If you use a tapering jig, remember to double the angle when you cut the second taper. If you saw the tapers freehand, clean the edges with a hand plane or on the jointer.
Install a crosscut blade and cut the 8-degree bevel on the bottom of each leg. Taper the legs on the bandsaw (Photo 3). Then, head to the router table and rout a 22-1/2-degree chamfer around the two inside edges and the top of each leg. You’ll need to use the fence for this step instead of the bit’s bearing, because of the dados in the legs.
4. Cut the triangular shelves using a miter gauge set to 60- degrees. Nip off the two small corners on a miter saw.
Finally, lay out and cut the two shelves (Photo 4). Assemble the stand and pre-drill shank and pilot holes for the screws. Secure with panhead screws and finish with polyurethane varnish to protect the stand from overzealous watering.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
