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:

http://ana-white.com/2009/12/plans-farmhouse-table-knock-off-of.html

http://ana-white.com/2010/01/plan-hyde-console-table-pottery-barn.html

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.