• Resene testpots in your choice of colour
• Cardboard tube (eg from a cable drum or storage drum)
  • (Search “cardboard drum on Trade Me". )
• Half-round wood
• Circle top (or pizza stone, serving board, etc). We used the lid that came with the storage drum.
• Wood glue (quick dry)
• Clamps
• Paint brush
• Hack saw or mitre saw
• Spirit level
• Pencil

Method

1. The cardboard tube is the base of your table and what holds the half-rounds together. You’ll need to cut the half-round timber to the length of the cardboard tube. You can either get a hardware store to cut this for you, or do it yourself with a mitre saw or hacksaw. To get the correct amount of half-rounds for your table, divide the circumference of the tube by the width of the half-rounds. For example, the circumference of our tube was 107cm and the width of our rounds was 3cm, so we needed 35 half-rounds.

2. With a spirit level, draw a straight line on the cardboard tube; this ensures that the first bar is straight.

3. On the flat side of your first half-round, smear wood glue right down the middle. Place it on the cardboard tube along the pencil line. Press firmly for a few seconds and fix in place with clamps and allow to dry for a few minutes. Gradually glue on the remaining wooden strips so they’re flush with the edge of each neighbouring strip.

4. If your maths wasn’t quite right and you end up with a gap that doesn’t fit your last half-round (as happened to us!) just glue a smaller bar into it. We had a 2cm gap which we filled with a smaller half-round. It’s hardly noticeable!

5. At the end, you may find slight differences in length; this can be remedied with a jigsaw or you can sand down with sandpaper. Only do this once the wood glue has completely dried.

6. Paint the top circle and the half-round table base separately with your choice of Resene colour/s. Once dry simply glue the circle top onto the bottom and leave to dry before using.