Today’s guest post is from Ashley @ Attemps at Domestication. She’s got some great ideas for sprucing up your space, so definitely check out her blog. And if you didn’t get a chance to peek at our event announcements in Richmond and NoVA, be sure to check those as well!
My husband and I love entertaining, but our small kitchen table was just not cutting it for both our space and our hosting abilities.
We decided that instead of searching for the perfect table and spending a ton of money, we would just build our own table. The project was surprisingly simple and turned out way better, and more inexpensive than we imagined, plus we absolutely love the table!
When we first started this project we did a whole lot of research on how best to go about building our own table. My major source of inspiration was Michelle’s kitchen table but her’s was not quite big enough for Jesse and I’s plans for our space. However, Michelle got her plans from Ana White’s blog so that is where we went searching for plans for our own table. We found that her Rustic Table plans best matched what we were looking for, but my husband, being the detailed person that he is didn’t just want to take her measurements and run with them. So we taped off the floor around our old table to decide how large we wanted our own table to be.
Then we went to Lowe’s with our measurements and got all of the supplies we needed. My husband had the day after we bought all of the supplies off work, so he started working without me. But he was a good little blogger husband and remembered to take some pictures. He basically followed Ana White’s plans to a T. Until it got to the legs. Ana White used 2×4’s for her legs, but we decided we liked the look of chunkier 4×4 legs instead. Hubby also did things in a different order, like attaching the legs to the apron before attaching the table top.
This did make everything way easier when it came to painting, no tape needed! We also stained the bottoms and sides of the tabletop boards before attaching them to the apron.
After the top was attached I stained the top side and applied about 3-4 coats of Matte polyurethane. I like the matte finish because it doesn’t add any sheen and makes things look even more rustic; however, we’ll have to add a regular coat of poly as well because the matte is too soft for something that will see such rough use over the years.
And now for what you’re all wondering about, how much did this project cost us?
- Â Â Â Â Wood – $86
- Â Â Â Â Stain (Dark Walnut) – $7.77
- Â Â Â Â Paint (Olympic Snow Storm) – $11.97
- Â Â Â Â Polyurethane (Rustoleum Matte finish) – $11.93
- Â Â Â Â If that is all we needed to buy then our total would have been: $117.67
But my husband decided that he needed a new drill and we accidentally ruined our brushes and had to buy more, plus we were out of sand paper. We actually ended up still spending just a little over $300, which is still WAY cheaper than we would have paid for a table anywhere else.
The chairs are also new purchases, but after I sold our old table and chairs for $80 these chairs ended up only costing us $10. When the weather gets warm again I plan on spray painting them all solid white.
Hey!! Just wanted to let you know I won’t make the event on the 31st as I was blessed to be chosen to speak at TedxRva Open Mic night
This is great! It seriously looks like something you could buy for several hundred dollars. Thanks for the great idea and inspiration!
Thanks so much for the feature! 🙂
Love it! My husband and I are in the midst of a redo and this both inspires me and gives me hope!
Btw, your pictures are wonderful and I am looking for a new camera. Recommendations?
Judy aka anthrofashionist
Love it! My husband and I are in the midst of a redo and this both inspires me and gives me hope!
Btw, your pictures are wonderful and I am looking for a new camera. Recommendations?
Judy aka anthrofashionist
I love it!! We just moved to Virginia and are in the middle of purchasing a home. We already know that our table from Texas is WAY too small for what we want to do here. Thank you so much for this post and I really liked how you budgeted it all out.
Oh I love it! We want to have a farmhouse table as well. This may just give us the inspiration to go for it!
Oh I love it! We want to have a farmhouse table as well. This may just give us the inspiration to go for it!
This is wonderful! We want a farmhouse table too! My husband has been talking about making us one for over a year now. Your easy steps and beautiful pictures has helped inspire us actually do it!
This is wonderful! We want a farmhouse table too! My husband has been talking about making us one for over a year now. Your easy steps and beautiful pictures has helped inspire us actually do it!
This looks awesome, Ashley!
okay, you’ve convinced me to try my hand at building something for our house!
okay, you’ve convinced me to try my hand at building something for our house!
Yay Virginia! Love the pictures.
Nice! We are looking for a table exactly like this – thanks for the links. Where did you find the perfect chairs?
Martha
that table looks fantastic. well done! and the chairs will look great all white–great idea.
that table looks fantastic. well done! and the chairs will look great all white–great idea.
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I really love the look of this table, sadly however, each picture link is giving me the good old 404 not found bit. Are the plans pretty much as follows in Ana’s blog? Also, in the picture on pinterest the edges of the table look darker than the table top itself, did you use a darker stain there? If you have the plans you used could you please send them to me?