Our DIY Farmhouse Table


First of all, Cliff is super handy and this is and has been such a blessing.  I've mentioned before that he is also very smart (why he married me, I have no clue).  If he doesn't know how to do something, he will read about it or youtube it and teach himself.  I, on the other hand just google answers and if they don't jump out at me....I give up! 😩#patienceisavirture


We were generously given my parent's old dining room table.   It had served us well and more so at our old house where we actually had a formal dining room.  I loved that it had two leaves and could sit 8-10 people when needed.  In our current base house, we have an open floor plan and not a lot of space.  The old table was bulky and dark so we agreed that we were ready for a change.  We also had an old Pennsylvania House hutch that I used to love but since decided that it needed to go too!  It had ample storage which I do miss, but the darkness and feminine style also needed to go.  We sold both pieces and did without a table for about a month!


Charlotte let us eat at her little table before the kid table makeover.

Cliff decided that he would just build us a table.  We both love unique pieces and love even more when we can save money by making them ourselves.  Cliff bought the table plans offline and set off to work in the garage.  He made the base by using an old school method of not using screws.  It is called mortise and tenon joint.   This is part of what took so much time.  He hand carved the protruding tenon piece to fit into the corresponding recess.  While I appreciate his hard work, I'm not opposed to screws. 😏   He bought the wood and table legs from Lowes and once he had built the entire base, he painted it white, and sealed it with Polycrylic.  He stained the top with Minwax and then used Polyurethane to seal it.
We decided that we didn't want just plain wood for the top so we sought out to find some reclaimed wood.  Cliff found a large construction resale store in Springfield, VA so we drove up there.  He came back to the truck with the most beautiful old wood from a house that had been built in Maryland in 1815.  The store even showed him pictures of the old home.  I think he paid under a 100 dollars for all of the wood needed to make the table top.  These planks were very thick and uneven so Cliff used a planer to cut them down and make them smooth.


The table base before paint






The old wood before Cliff used the planer to cut them down and make them smooth.


After the planer.



All of the table shavings....in my what once was clean garage!



TAAADAAA
The finished product!






We absolutely love the finished product!  We added these aluminum chairs on the sides.  They are extremely kid friendly because they wipe down super easy.  We added these inexpensive Accent chairs to the end and sprayed them with Scotchguard to somewhat protect them from dirty toddler hands.


I scored this hutch for 50$ and knew that I wanted to give it a makeover.  I made a white homemade chalk paint by mixing cornstarch into regular ole white paint.  I did quite a few coats and painted the entire inside.  This took quite a few nap times.  I then hand sanded it to distress it.  Once sanded, I painted a top coat of Polycrylic to seal it.  While I do like the finished product, I want something a little bigger and think that if I do find one, I'm going to go for a color next time.  Maybe a light gray or green!
  Stay tuned!


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