My Biggest Build to Kick Off 2016 - Dining Room Table

Happy New Year to all my readers! I can't believe it is already 2016, crazy! One of my goals for 2016 is to update this blog more and get going on more projects. I joined the Fab Furniture Flippin' Contest group in late November and can't wait wait to join in. The month of January filled up very quickly, so I am hoping to join in the next few months.

So, the month of December was a big month for myself. I took the CFA level 1 exam on 12/5, which really slowed down everything, including furniture and this blog. Then right after that, my father bought a condo near me and I helped him move and get settled. One of his housewarming gifts was this amazing sign I made at Board & Brush. Here we are on the one of the most windy days in Wisconsin while it is raining of course on December 14.

I work usually about one night a week at their Hartland, WI location teaching a class. I highly recommend checking them out and it would be a great business venture to open up a franchise location for all you DIY'ers our there. Wisconsin is starting to get a lot of them, so I haven't opened one yet, but I would love to.. maybe in 2016! Here is a quick sample of some other signs I have made there, can you tell I am dating a Wade? 

 

 

Anyways, with my dad moving, he (we because he needs help with decor) decided that he was going to get all new furniture. It helped that the buyer of his other place wanted it furnished too. So I had a little boost of confidence with furniture building after my farmhouse bench and thought it would be a great idea to make him a dining room table. I have always seen Shanty 2 Chic's plans for their Restoration Hardware inspired dining room table and decided to try it.

My dad's dining room was not going to accommodate a table of that size, so I made the top smaller, about 3x5. I was going to try to make the legs smaller, but decided to just not make the middle 4x4 quite as long. Here are some pictures during construction in my garage.

Here are some tips if you decide to make this. Kreg has a 6 inch clamp that is supposed to hold the boards together where you drill. I skipped buying this and I would kneel and apply pressure while drilling. This seemed to work pretty well. I would be tempted to try the clamp though if I make any more of these. I sanded the table top when it was completely together and this seemed to help all the little variations in the top (there were a few). It also helped a ton to have a friend over to help (my furniture friend Kim) because of the size of the project.

This was how far I had got the first day (about 5 hours). The top was assembled and I had the bottom lightly set up so I could see how level the table would be and for the height. Next, I built the legs with my Ryobi 10 inch compounding miter saw.

Once I finished these up, I put the top on again and everything was pretty level and good enough for me. 

Next, I brought out one of my Goodwill chair finds that I would eventually like to refinish and sat at the table. It was pretty high, but I went with it. Hoping to find some tall chairs (fingers crossed). Anyone know where to find any? Next I sanded out the table and all the legs with my palm sander. I would recommend starting with a rough grit (80 or 100) and then going over it again with 220 to get it nice and smooth.

For stain, I tried Varathane's fast dry wood stain in Early American. My dad really likes the rustic look and  I wanted to get this done quickly. It worked well. The directions for this recommend staining everything once it is assembled. If I make another one of these tables, I would stain the mitered supports for the legs of the table before. It is really hard to get underneath them. Then I would just touch them up after it was all assembled.

I then put 3 coats of  my favorite satin poly on the top and two coats on the legs. Then came time for assembly, I was so nervous!

We flipped everything upside down so I could drill the legs into the tabletop. Then we flipped it over and got it set up and realized it really was super tall. So we took the pads off and I am still looking for some taller chairs to put with it.

Overall, it was a lot of work. I probably had at least 20 hours into it. But I just love it! My dad does too.

What do you all think?

Thanks so much for reading!
Shayla

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