Table Building Part 2

The tables are assembled and the only thing remaining is to decide on the finish, which is easier said than done. For this I defer to "A" because I am pretty easy going, or if you ask her "I don't care" :) Partially true, because she does have really good taste and our tastes are very similar. The whole trick to anything we do is she comes up with ideas and I am generally good with almost everything. Occasionally I have to veto something, maybe 10 ideas and I don't like 2, but in the end we usually have a really nice design. Courtesy of "A", I am just the hired help.

The choices are:
1. Wax.
     -We tried the wax and it does look good but it is easily marred with a finger tip. I guess it would be high maintenance and the need to continually buff. So this one is out.

2. Whitewash Stain using diluted white paint.
     -This looks pretty good and might be a contender for at least the dining table if combined with the oil. This would make the table lighter than just the oil.

3. Just polyurethane.
     -This one is out because we do not want it to look like "plastic".

4. Sun bleached stain.
     -Tried this, but didn't like the results so this one is out.

5. Watco Oil over raw wood. (My Favorite)
     -This was really nice but it might have made the wood a little too dark. This one could work for the breakfast nook since that room receives more natural light, but probably not for the dining room.

Below are the results of the oil and the whitewash with oil.

What do you think?

Table Building Part 1

Last weekend we built our breakfast nook and dining tables with the help  of our friends.



For the table tops we went with kiln dried Douglas Fir and the legs are made out of Douglas Fir 4x4s that we bought at Dixieline. The breakfast nook top is 2x8 and the dining room is 2x12. Because they have an actual "mill" area we had them cut the wood for us. The long pieces were no problem but the side pieces at the end were measured incorrectly by yours truly. For some reason I thought that the 2x8 would be 7.5" wide and the 2x12 would be 11.5" wide and it appears that I was wrong. I know, SHOCKING!!!
  
Thankfully They were too long  and we were able to take them back to Dixieline to re-cut.  Where apparently I screwed up again, %#*&@@!!! The dining room table was perfect but the breakfast nook as too damn short!!! "A" again came to the rescue and we trimmed the edges to make it look intentional, at least I hope. "Act Natural".

We also picked up a new tool, a Kreg Jig. I really should have gotten one a long time ago. It creates hidden pocket holes when attaching wood together, so convenient.

Our friends were very helpful in building the tables and we really appreciate it.

$2,965 table for $100

This weekend's project was an outdoor dining table. We wanted something hefty and "rustic" that would look great and seat eight. We also wanted a table that would not take much maintenance and if it got dinged or "slightly" damaged no one would really care.

"A" found this really great website, Ana-White, that has plans for all kinds of building projects. A store by the name of Restoration Hardware has really nice merchandise at really high end prices. But the ana-white website shows you how to build the exact same thing for a fraction of the cost.

The table we liked was a Provence beam dining table and Restoration Hardware had it for $2,965 (on sale). However the ana-white website has detailed instructions on how to build the exact same thing. She used 2x4s for the legs and supports but we modified it with 4x4s.

The top is 2x6, underneath support is 2x4 and 1x3 and the legs and struts are 4x4. Everything is Douglas Fir construction grade. We decided to use this type of wood since it was going to be outside/exposed to the elements and it was really inexpensive. When we build our indoor dining table we will use a higher finish wood and ensure it is kiln dried.

Lumber cost was $80 and the six lag (1/2"x 6") screws were about $20. This was another modification we used because we liked the look and wanted to over build the table. We did not have to buy the other screws that were used because we already had them from other projects. In all fairness, if we had to buy everything for the table it would have been slightly more expensive

Our Friends came over to help us out again and it took about four hours to build it. We still need to sand it and stain/protect the finish but over all it was time well spent.