So, Mrs. LK had been hounding me for a new dining room table for the last few months. Our toddler has outgrown his high chair, and our old table was a 4 person, tall bar-style table. Really nice table, but not practical for family dining anymore.
Then she dropped the bombshell on me that she wanted me to build the table myself using the following plans:
Triple Pedastal Farmhouse Table
Triple Pedastal Farmhouse Bench
I modified the plans a bit to take advantage of some of the woodworking skills I have vs the simple DIY methods shown in the plans.
The goal was to have the table appear somewhat rustic, so perfection was not a necessity, which was nice given I was working with fairly average wood.
What follows are a series of photos I took during construction, with some comments added. Some of the photos came out really grainy...sorry.
Here is the before photo of the pile of lumber. All told, I spent about $200 on the wood. It took me hours to find enough wood that was perfectly straight. I had zero desire to have to pull out the planer or the jointer to mill the lumber down to perfection. Again, it's supposed to be rustic. What you see is mostly prime stud lumber and the 1x6 boards are the higher grade pine boards you can buy at Lowe's.
Here is the assembled pedestal for the table. I put it together in the hallway in my house because it was a 100% flat area. Our garage (which was converted to my workshop for the last 2 weeks) has a few degrees of slope to the floor which would have made assembling this and getting it perfectly square a nightmare. My #1 goal was for the base to be absolutely perfect with respect to how it sits on the floor and the supports all being level and aligned properly.
The table top itself was composed of two huge panels, which I made using the 1x6 pine boards. They were all edge joined using dowel pins(self aligning dowel jig FTW) and wood glue. I clamped them overnight to allow the glue to set. The arches on the base were made using a jigsaw. The below pics are the raw table top sitting on top of the pedestal:
The next step was to add the apron, which was done with 1x3 pine boards, finishing nails and more wood glue. Again it was all clamped overnight to dry.
Next step was the bench. The bench was made from 2x4 stud lumber. It's joined together with dowel pins and wood glue. These pics show the bench clamped and drying.
The next couple days were spent sanding the hell out of this thing. I started with 100 grit and worked my way through 200 and then 400 grit using an orbital sander. The final sanding was done by hand with the 400 grit. In this pic you can see the sanded table top. You'll also notice a slight gap in the wood in the bottom right where the panel didn't sit flush with the frame. My wife wanted me to leave it alone to keep the rustic feel, so I did. Personally, I wanted to pull the frame off and redo the whole thing.
Finally, time to do some staining. The table top after 2 coats of Rustoleum wood stain (the color was "Carrington"):
Time to stain the rest of the pieces...my garage was stretched to the limits for this...
Polyurethane time. We used Rustoleum semi-gloss. 4 thin coats, with sanding using 600 grit paper between coats. After sanding, wipe clean with a tack cloth and re-apply the polyurethane.
And finally, the assembled table and bench in our dining space:
The finished table is 93" x 40" and weighs a freaking ton.