So we mentioned how we botched a would-be rehabilitation of our former dining room table. And while we certainly plan on seeing that project through (we’re not giving up totally), because of previously made plans we DID need a functional, aesthetically pleasing table to use in two weeks, which is how I convinced Alex that we should build our own.
He was not really down with this idea. Or, in fairness, he was ok with it … eventually. But he didn’t want to do it RIGHT NOW, like I did. To put this in perspective — I came home from work Friday night with the stripper to use on our old table. Friday around 9pm we declared the stripping project a bust. Then, around 10pm, I said “We should build our own table this weekend”. I got a lot of eye rolls and groans, and more than one “Seriously? I just want a break”.
So when Alex called me on his way home from Saturday morning basketball only to find out that I was on my way home from the lumber store, he just resigned himself to the fact that it was happening.
First, I got the lumber. I chose poplar because it’s a softer wood, but still better quality than the pine / fir you can get from big box stores. That wood is fine for framing and other purposes, but for building furniture, I wanted something a bit nicer (although I knew with my skill level, I wasn’t ready to graduate to oak, mahogany, cherry, walnut …. etc)
Because I was getting it from a lumber / specialty wood store, and NOT a Lowe’s or Home Depot, many of the boards didn’t come planed and in standard sizes. The pros of this included the ability to make the table a little more “rustic” (especially the planks on the top), but the biggest con was that we had to cut our own boards, which is a bit daunting. Also, the boards weren’t completely straight, again because they didn’t come planed. And not-straight boards usually makes not-straight furniture & joints. So that was tricky.
For a plan, I used some tips from both Ana White‘s book (The Handbuilt Home, “Farmhouse Dining Table” plan), as well as some parts from another table plan I found on her website. Basically I mixed and matched design components until I came up with something that would work with the boards that I had. In the end, it most resembled this design from Ana White’s plan catalog.
First, (well, second — first we cut all of our boards) we built the legs, which were two sections of 2×4 screwed & glued together, with strategic notches for the apron / frame and stretchers. We let them dry overnight (so the glue would make them nice and strong).
Then, the next morning we put the apron / frame together – this part would sit in the notches on the legs, and form the frame for the tabletop. All it took was a speed square to make sure things were lining up, some glue, and four screws … and bam! It’s starting to look more table-like.
From here on out it was pretty smooth sailing — just a matter of screwing all of the pieces together; it wasn’t much more complicated than assembling some Ikea furniture (but we had to pre-drill our own holes). We attached the side strechers (those little ankle height pieces between the end legs), which had a notch for a length-wise stretcher.
I put in the frame supports for the tabletop, and then climbed on top of it to make sure it was structurally sound (check! it worked).
And finally, we attached the four wide tabletop planks together via pocket holes (no picture of this, we needed all of our hands) and a sweet Kreg jig, and it was a simple matter of screwing the tabletop down.
Voila! Table in 1.5 days.
The bottom stretcher looks crooked in this photo, but it doesn’t look like that in real life… I think because when I took this photo the whole table was a bit askew from the floor boards?
It’s huge (7 feet long), but we figured if we were going to go through the trouble of building it, we would make one that would be large enough for our pre-Thanksgiving gathering and any other future events. And we definitely have plans to finish it somehow, but we don’t know how yet (stain? paint? two-tone? just seal it?). Still, it feels really great to look into the dining room and see the table that we freakin’ built! It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s sturdy and, if nothing else, comes with a good story attached to it.
{ kelley + alex } 