Thursday, December 30, 2010

Finally, my masterpiece is DONE!

Ta Da!!
My new dining room table.  Made by me with help from my handsome hubby and Ana-White.com
I made some modifications. One change was size, to fit my diminutive dining space, second was I used 4 x 4's for legs, and another was I used 2x12's for the top.  My husband and I wanted a chunkier feel to the entire table.  I am not sure whether I should call it a modified Farm table or maybe it is closer to the Tryde series or just a combination of both. Here is links to both:

After cutting my table legs (4 x 4's) and aprons to size I stained them with a gel stain in a dark color( Min Wax Red Elm), leaving the areas I am going to glue free of stain.  After the stain dries I paint on a crackle medium (I use Folk Art Crackle medium) and let dry.  I glued and screwed the base pieces all together.  Because it was so cold and snowy outside I brought it into the house with the help of my husbands muscles and I painted on the white coat.  Once dry the crackling is evident.
The picture is not that great with indoor lighting, it was still too cold and snowy to do it outside. I sanded along the edges to show the stain beneath and to age it a bit. 

The 2 x 12s were soaking wet when we picked them up at the local lumberyard so we had stacked them inside the house to dry for a week or so.  When I decided to put them together I thought they were dry enough and here is 2 planks glued.

This was a trick of my husbands. This is the underneath of the tabletop as we attached the last 2 planks and since our clamps were not large enough to fit across the entire top he used 1 x 4's screwed in at angles to pull the edges together until the glue dried well.  We had used a table saw to rip the inner rounded edges off so they would fit togther snugly, we left the outer edges of the table top rounded.

here it is before I stained the top.

You can see the little dip in the boards in this shot, they were not as dried as they should have been, I guess I was too impatient but I like the little imperfection. 

I had my muscle man move the top into my painting studio to stain it, the stain fumes were too stinky for inside the house.  I moved lots of houseplants like Peace Lily and Pothos into the studio to absorb and clean the fumes out of the air (did you know a Peace Lily can remove 75% of certain toxins in the air of an average room in 24 hours) They worked great. I was able to work in there the next day.  I also stained the underneath for a uniform look.  I finished it all off with Varathane brand Waterbased clear semi gloss Spar Urethane (outdoor).  I prefer it to Polycrylic as it does not amber in time.  I have painted faux finishes and custom signs for 10 years now and the Varathane has performed the best for me.   Gloss and semi-gloss are the most water proof along with being the Outdoor one.

Several angles of the finished table in its new home.



It fits perfectly but I am not sure I have room for a console table under the window.  I would like one there to serve as a buffet but we will see.  I can always build it and if it is too snug to fit under this window then I can use it under the front window. 


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18 comments:

  1. This looks lovely. I am going to be undertaking a very large farmhouse table in a few weeks. Thanks for the finishing tips.

    And I vote yes for the console table!

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  2. Wow, I can't believe you made that! It looks great!

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  3. looks great im wanting to do something like this in my kitchen

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  4. Thanks everyone, I did enjoy this project. And in case anyone is interested and doesn't already know I got the inspiration to give it a whirl from www.ana-white.com. I have built some things in the past like a potting bench and some garden benches and I love power tools. But I needed the encouragement at Ana's site to give me the gumption to go ahead and tackle this one. I have another counter height table very similar to this one planned out for a house we stay in while on a job in Idaho. We shall see when I get around to doing that one...

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  5. Wow that's amazing! Turned out great. Nice DIY! =]

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  6. The table turned out great! I love ana white's website!

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  7. It looks beautiful! You did such an amazing job.

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  8. Good job and your table turned out so pretty!
    Be a sweetie,
    Shelia ;)

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  9. Great job! I really like how it turned out and it seems much easier than I would have thought.

    Have a great week!

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  10. Awesome! first time looking at your blog. What type of wood did you use for your 2x12?

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  11. It looks amazing Pamela~ I love how it turned out. My sons and I took apart an old farmhouse table over the summer and turned it into a HUGE table- it was such a fun project! Thanks for sharing this at my party! :)

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  12. I just discovered your blog - and this great posting. I follow Ana White's blog, too, and have been planning to make a kitchen table & desk fr this same plan. I don't have any clamps, so I think I'll be using your husband's great idea! Thanks so much for sharing this - awesome table, btw. :D

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  13. this is really pretty! i'm trying to convince my husband to build me a table top to replace the one i have. could you maybe slip in there how easy this was and how rewarding it was for your husband? ;) hahaha! its gorgeous - great work!

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  14. Your table looks great. We also built a farmhouse table using Ana's plans {but we built it large to accommodate our big family} ... I love her site. Visiting from Funky Junk Interiors.

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  15. Not to be dumb, but what size is the table top? I love how it looks. Great tip on the plants. I'm going to keep that info for next time I'm buying plants for the house. :)

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  16. Adorable!! I love it!! Thanks for sharing and great to find your blog - Hope to see you drop by mine too! Hugs and Smiles, T

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