Table Time

If you're in the furniture carpentry mood, then I insist you stop by Ana White's website. It is chock full of a variety of building plans that will leave you proud and feeling accomplished after you tackle your first project.

I had been hoping to build a table for some time now, but had been unable to find the time to get out of the city to take on this fun project. However, this weekend I was able to put aside a few hours where I had no work or class to get things started!

I had been eyeing barn wood dining room tables for awhile, and new I wanted to take a similar route that resembled that distressed look, however I wanted something that didn't involve a great deal of tools and equipment that was not available to me.

I found this cute coffee table on Anna White's site that looked sturdy and adjustable with an easy to work with plan. After making some minor tweaks to the measurements, I came up with some dimensions that fit my needs. A counter height table that had a decent tabletop surface.

First, I trekked it out to Lowe's and had some wood cut.

I designed my table to be approximately 32" high x 32" wide x 48" long

Cut List:

4 - 4x4 Posts @ 34.5" (Legs)

2 - 1x4 @ 28.5" (Leg Joiners)

2 - 1x4 @ 33" (Side Aprons)

2 - 2x6 @31.75" (Breadboard Ends)

9 - 2x4 @36" (Tabletop Slats)

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If you are comparing my dimensions to the one that Anna instructs you to use you will notice that I opted out from using the end apron spacers, and the tabletop supports. I honestly didn't think that I needed the 2x2 table supports because I wouldn't be supporting that much weight on the table, and it would still be very VERY sturdy without them. I also didn't use the end apron spacers because I cut them too short by accident. Oops! Oh well. I didn't need them and you can't even tell I didn't use them because the breadboard covers that area anyways.

Each of the 28.5" leg joiners were screwed (2.5" screws) to the posts leaving .75"of the post uncovered on either side.

The 33"side aprons were securely screwed into the sides of the leg joiners to create your square.

I used three cans of Rust-oleum American Accents in Satin Blossom White to paint the legs and sideboards of the table. Be sure not to let it drip and/or run and to cover the areas evenly.

Once the paint had dried I attached the 2x4 slats, and 2x6 breadboards to the top. I just used 2.5" screws.

Using wood filler, each of the screw holes were filled, and then quickly scrapped off with a putty knife and sanded down. Make sure to buy the stainable kind!

I used Minwax Dark Walnut to stain the top of the table. This stain goes on VERY dark. I covered the entire table with one coat, waited an hour (because I am super impatient), and then covered the entire table with another coat. About one hour later, I covered the table with a finishing coat by Minwax. Ideally, you should wait 12-24 hours between each layer of stain and finishing coat, however I am wicked impatient and was also on a time crunch to get it done before I had to head back into the city.

After letting it dry, the results turned out superb. I'm so glad I only put on one to two coats of stain. It made the texture of the wood significantly stand out against the dark walnut stain. Beautiful!

Sorry for the bland instagram picture. I wasn't able to snap an attractive staged picture of it in the house before I had to leave, however next time I'm in Maine, I'll be sure to spruce it up and take a picture of it!

Next project up would to be to build some benches to accommodate this beaut!