In retrospect, I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised by the fun of creating magic with dowel rods. After all, we discovered how easy and inexpensive it can be to hang quilts with a dowel rod and a few L-hooks (AKA square cup hooks.) It turns out dowel rods can be used to create some pretty cool furniture if you're willing to do the work.
During the pandemic, I read a magazine article about a woman who redecorated her home on a strict budge. The results fit right into my love for light, inexpensive, easy, and quality, not quantity. Pictures were included but no instructions for any of the DIY projects. There was an oblique reference to a table she'd made with dowel rods, a concrete tube form, and a circular piece of wood, with a picture showing a small, side table topped with a lamp.
Winter was slow to turn into spring and I needed a diversion from the cold, so I browsed the internet for references to such a project. In the end, I just sort of made it up my own plans, beginning with all the 1/2 inch dowel rods in stock at the local Family True Value Hardware, an 8-inch diameter Quikrete tube form from Lowes, and my trusty glue gun. The hardware staff looked kind of skeptical when I first explained what I was doing but they were interested enough that they asked for pictures of the finished table, and offered to order as many more dowel rods as I needed.
Even as I began gluing, I'd not yet decided what to use for the top -- Plexiglas or wood? I knew I could easily find a precut circular wood top, but I liked the look of Plexiglas so asked Jim Basinger, owner of Family Hardware, if he'd cut one for me. He agreed and a few days later, I had the circle. Later I bought a wooden craft circle so now can easily swap one out for the other.
Somehow I got lucky with the base of the table -- I'd glued on all of the dowel rods, but was left with a space that wouldn't accommodate a 1/2-inch rod, but a 3/8-inch rod fit perfectly. My sewing/quilting brain decided that an error that doesn't affect fit, drape, or appearance, was purely intentional.
I finished the table with a spray-on clear polyurethane because it gave even coverage and I was ready to be done! I placed it next to one of my favorite finds from an antique-dealer friend -- it projects the midcentury modern effect I love.