We found our dining room table when we lived in Boston. It was at a local Goodwill and I think it was around $50. We sanded and painted it, and it was good to go for a couple of years.
When we moved into our new place, I wanted to refinish the top. I thought it looked a little young, and well, we're old now. Sort of. And I was over the stripes that were now chevron.
I started by disassembling the table and sanding down the top. The veneer started to peel up. It was another project gone wrong (shocker!). So, the research began.
I talked a little bit about dining room table inspiration
here. I toyed with finding some metal to wrap the top with, maybe a new veneer. I opted to try and make my own top.
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| Tea for my husband, lumber for me |
I measured and found
Brown Lumber (thank you, Yelp!). Best decision yet. The person helping me had just made his own tabletop and spent forty-five minutes with me, looking at different types of wood, talking about how to construct it, and giving me confidence that I could actually do this on my own.
Material purchased (and cut) at Brown Lumber included:
6 - 2x6 @ 60" (tabletop planks)
2 - 2x6 @ 33" (ends)
Wood glue
All for a grand total of $27. That's a salad at Whole Foods.
A quick trip to Lowe's for clamps (I bought two because they were a little spendy, probably should have invested in four), and I was in business.
Started by arranging all of the pieces in the order I wanted to see them, hiding marks that I thought would be hard to sand down. Added a line of wood glue to the edges (obviously not the outside edges), squared them up as evenly as possible, and clamped them down.
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| The old tabletop is on the ground - what a mess! |
Once they were dry, I added the two end pieces. I was told I could temporarily screw these in place (because I didn't have a clamp that would work) and remove the screw once the glue dried, however I didn't need to. They dried and were as solidly in place as the other planks.
You can see I didn't get things perfectly square. It would have helped to have a second person help square it up after the glue was applied, but that being said, I don't really mind the finished look.
Once everything was dry, I sanded minimally.
The picture above is three coats of stain. I'm going back and forth about adding a couple more layers. It will be finished with polyurethane to protect.
I also left some of the edges with raw wood exposed. I liked the charm this added.
The top isn't completely even (this is where more clamps and a second person would have come in handy!), but it's a farmhouse top, so I figure a bit of rustic-ness is appropriate.
Total Time: A weekend depending on glue and stain dry time (I worked on this over a course of a week or so - staining when I had time)
Materials:
1. Table Base
2. Wood Glue
3. Clamps large enough to clamp the width of the table
4. Stain and Brush (I used Rust-Oleum Wood Stain in Kona)
5. Hand sander and P40 sandpaper (I wanted a rougher finish)
6. Polyurethane (I am going to use Minwax Clear Satin)
7. Rags (to wipe glue and extra stain)
8. Wood (duh)
Instructions:
1. Measure necessary dimensions and go to your favorite lumber yard
2. Arrange the wood as you would like it to be assembled
3. Add a line of glue to all edges that will be butted together, square everything as much as possible and let dry (use a wet rag to wipe up any excess glue)
4. Add the end wood pieces with glue, square and let dry
5. Sand as necessary
6. Stain
7. Add polyurethane
8. Attach to table base
The room needs to be painted and styled properly, but I wanted to show how it fits.
We are going to add these chairs (shameless plug: they are available to
Urban Perch eDesign clients and will soon be added to our site). I'm also considering upholstering the Ikea bench.
Stay tuned as I style the space! Hopefully in time for Thanksgiving...
Check out Ana White's
blog for more detailed instructions on how to construct your own farmhouse table base and top!
