I just completed this table, and so completed my "passive solar" dining area.
This is a southerly exposed set of floor to ceiling windows on my house.
There were three stages to the porch. First stage, I partially dismantled a 1950s white-painted aluminum porch shade structure. I left the skeleton in place. Then I broke up and removed the solid (HOT) concrete from the porch itself replacing it with decomposed granite. Second stage, I painted the shade's skeleton fig brown and planted a native "California Wild Grape (Rodgers Red)." In just a couple years the fast growing wine-quality grape vine covered the old skeleton. It provides shade in the summer for this southerly exposed window, and in the winter the leaves turn red and fall off, allowing sun into the big windows. Also provides great grapes.
The table was the long delayed third and last stage: it allows us to sit outside, use no electric light, run no fans for cooling, and enjoy the coastal Cali summer breeze! Also, the West Elm table that this design knocks-off, was nearly two feet shorter, made of cheaper wood, and $600 before taxes. I made this for $250 out of top grade redwood. It's nearly two feet longer. And that cost includes the cost of the circular saw I used to cut the boards.
Today
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