Yes, my “work” table is inspiring to me, granting me moments of acute literary brilliance, alarming insights, artistic ideas and all of that. It’s where my creative life takes place, for the most part, and I get great joy from sitting at it every day, organizing things, daydreaming, drawing and sometimes just sitting. Sitting is good and does not get the praise it deserves. This table has character, weight, uniqueness and just plain joy. It is a big, fat baby of a table, and I adore it.

Let me tell you the story of how my special table came to be. As a Christmas present one year, my husband Robert drove us to a shop, not letting me in on the surprise until he parked our car in front of Architectural Old House Parts, located in Front Royal, about 20 minutes from Little Washington. His Christmas present to me was waiting inside: the joy of personally picking out the parts for a new worktable that he was going to construct for me from “scratch.” It was a very merry Christmas to me that year.

Robert knew that I’ve always had a love for old architectural elements like distressed porch balustrades, hand-carved festoons, even rusty iron columns salvaged from churchyards. I’ve always wanted a table made from old house parts. This particular shop was bursting at the seams with objects “rescued” from demolition.

As we shuffled down a long hallway and into the doorway of the shop, I could see I would soon be in old-parts heaven. I began my shopping spree by choosing a distressed white, seven-and-a-half-foot, solid hardwood, turn-of-the-century door. I wanted eight-foot, but none was to be found.

Next, the table legs: I got four corner newel posts that I decided could be turned upside down so the balls of the posts touched the floor. Then the table skirt: Robert decided some old hand-railings would do the trick.

Fast-forward to April of the following year, and Robert was still cutting, measuring, researching ideas and basically waiting for warmer weather so he could work in the garage. Warm weather came and he succeeded in putting together my dream worktable. Because of the length and weight of the door itself, Robert decided to put together the final pieces in my workroom. Industrial bolts and other hardware were used to connect all the table features. I had called Mike’s Glass, in Orange, to custom-cut the glass top for my table. It arrived two weeks later and was a perfect fit. My guess is that this table, now with a glass top and several solid architectural elements, weighs at least 195 pounds (click on the "image" tab above for a closer look).