This table was built with love, sweat, lots of tears, and oh yeah... tools!
How do you build a farmhouse table when you have no experience, no saw, but you have a plan?! You ask Dad for help.
We were moving into a new apartment and had no furniture. We needed a new table and figured how hard could it be to build our own.
one week till move in day
on a budget
no experience beforehand
When my husband told me he was going to build a farmhouse table for me; I was shocked. EXCITED. But really shocked. "You're gonna build it?!" I asked. Beyond shocked. My husband hadn't built anything like this before.
Little did we know this table would become more then just a "piece of furniture". This table bonded us. This table might of almost broke our marriage. It's apart of our family for life now! Let's see how this train wreck went ;)
You already know I had a Pinterest board filled with ideas and my husband could of cared less. Ugh, men. Is it just my husband that hates my Pinterest addiction or does your husband hate it too? He took it upon himself to find the table plan he wanted.
ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN! Seriously.
TIP #1: Always have a plan.
A plan is going to help you in the long run. You will be able to go back and double check what materials you need, what measurements and cuts need to be made, and step by step directions on how to assemble. Building a farmhouse table may not be the right first d.i.y project for everyone to tackle, but my husband likes a challenge.
After gathering a ton of ideas and plans for Aaron and him not caring the slightest.... he ended up finding the same plan on his own. Go figure. *insert hard eye roll here*
The plan we chose was designed by Ana White. You can get the free building plans here: https://www.ana-white.com/woodworking-projects/farmhouse-table-updated-pocket-hole-plans
Her free building plans will give you images like this to follow. This image is from Ana White's free building plans. You can click the link or click the picture to be taken directly to the Farmhouse Table Free Building Plans. Her step by step instructions come with detailed pictures to follow along to as a well, a shopping list, a tools list, and even a cut list! She makes a semi difficult project literally one that ANYONE can do!
Tip #2: Recruit Help.
Don't be afraid to ask for help! This Farmhouse Table couldn't get much easier to follow along to, but that doesn't mean we knew what we were doing. At the time, we did not own a electric saw or a kreg jig. A kreg jig is what makes hidden pocket holes to hide your screws under the table. Following that plan saved on cost of wood, overall gave it a great finish, and easy to assemble and disassemble if you move.
We wanted to keep our costs low in building this and we didn't have a place to store tools. This is where we phone called for help. Aaron asked his dad for help in making the table. Which worked perfectly in our favor. His dad had the tools we needed and the knowledge we lacked. They built the table in under two hours. I should mention the costs of wood and supplies we needed to buy only costed us $60 out of pocket! YEAH! Where can you buy a farmhouse table for $60?! That made this project even more desirable.
TIP #3: Have Super Nice Parents That Let You Use Their Basement.
Again, we were in the process of moving to our new apartment and had no "proper" place to be building a farmhouse table in the middle of winter. A couple pretty pleases and we were given permission to use my parents basement to stain the wood. We disassembled the whole table, laid out plastic to prevent staining the floor, and got to work. We chose a dark walnut stain for the table at the beginning because I was so in love with dark woods. Oh, how things have changed.
It really did look good and we were so dang proud of ourselves! When we built this table 5 years ago, there was a wood treatment that was kind of popular at the time. It was pretty much "faux wood burning". Real wood burning treatments are called Shou Sugi Ban. A process of burning the wood and then sealing it with oils. The treatment is known to preserve the wood for 80-100 years. The technique is actually really cool. But not what I imagined for us.
I was not about to let my husband torch a beautiful table we just built. Ah, heck no. This is where he spent a few hours on Youtube and somehow became a master of "faux wood burning". What is "faux wood burning"? Faux wood burning is where you use black spray paint to mimic the look of Shou Sugi Ban. Surprisingly, it works. Aaron managed to get the slightly torched look he was after. We were up till almost 2 am staining, painting, and clearing for two nights. So much sleepless giggling... or maybe it was from the stain and poly. We used Varathane Dark Walnut Interior Stain and then did several coats of Polyurethane over the top.
This image was not taken in our apartment. This is from our current house. Our first house! We're first time home owners now! This table was massive in our apartment, but we wanted something we could host the family at for holiday parties. A table we could ALL gather around and still have room to wiggle. I love this table so much. I didn't know you could love furniture, but this was our first d.i.y build as a married couple, and it turned out so good!
Tip #4: D.I.Y Projects Can Test A Marriage & You Should Tread Cautiously.
I never would of thought this table would bond us and almost break us. When we built this table it brought my love for d.i.y and Aarons new skills for building together. I was so excited for the next build! He did an amazing job on this table! What could go wrong?
Fast forward to present day, buying our first house,
and me ready to take on every room by storm!!!
Can you see where this going?
Our new house needed every room to be repainted. The person who owned it before us was renting it out. We live in a small 1,064 sq. ft. ranch house in a cookie cutter neighborhood. I'm not complaining! I never thought we would be able to buy a house as soon as we did. Is it my dream home? Eh... no. BUT! Just because it's not my dream home, doesn't mean I can't d.i.y the crap out of every room, and that is where I found myself in trouble. Aaron loves me. My love for d.i.y and my need to renovate every room annoys the crap out of him. It's not that he doesn't want to renovate each room either... but we have different time lines of when it should get done. He likes the idea of 1 room or 1 project each year. I like the idea of let's get everything we can afford to get done; DONE. I hear all the time is:
"We're gonna here for at least the next 30 years."
OH NO WE AIN'T! My plan is like 10-15 years and then onto buying a house with acres! Lots of acres, wooded, a barn with chickens, and a farmhouse to fix up or the ability to build a dream home. Back to our current situation, we needed every room to be painted. We started in my daughters room and then I tackled the largest area: The Living/Dinning/Kitchen. Our ranch home is kind of open concept. We have a long narrow living room that runs into the dinning room and then L's off to a galley style kitchen. Cute. Cozy. Awful. I mean Adorable. I'm not complaining remember. I'm working with what I have and I'm grateful.
How do you choose a paint color for three rooms that are all basically one room? You search Pinterest for months or fall in love with The Cotton Stem's house. Do you follow Erin on Instagram @thecottonstem?! Her house is stunning! She made me fall in love with the paint color she uses all throughout her house: Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams.
It's a blue. It's a grey. It's a green. It's a mystery. In peak daylight hours, this color is a beautiful light pale serene blue. In evening light or early morning light, the color on our walls reads green, grey, and even teal at times.
It was my comfort zone. Blue is also Aaron's favorite color and it felt safe to go this route. After seeing how Erin could make this color so universal in her home, I knew it could work in our home too. I painted the walls and was starting to decorate with more whites, creams, and lighter tone woods. I was getting to a point where I was really happy with our new space. I was on the right path! All except for the giant brown blob in the middle of our dinning room. I did not like that giant brown blob. It was time for a change.
I convinced Aaron to let me sand off the old stain and paint. I told him my plan was to bring back the natural wood tone and stain it a more natural tone. A lighter tone. This is where "testing our marriages limits" got a little iffy. I repeat.. tread cautiously when you d.i.y. I think it's normal for all marriages and all couples to argue about opinions. We all like different things. We all see things differently. We aren't always going to agree and that's understandable. This was different. At least for me. I explained my plan and he heard me out. But unknowingly, he had a different plan and didn't exactly clue me in.
We sanded this table for hours! 6 hours to be exact! I'm not even joking. It took me two days to sand this table in between the other things we had going on. Also, we used Citrus Orange Stripper to try and remove some of the old stain and paint that was on it. It worked somewhat... it was our first time ever using that product. I feel like it just made a huge sticky mess. Aaron helped me and when we could we would both sand it with our electric sanders. It felt like it was never going to get down to the natural wood. I told him exactly what I wanted, I would head to the store, and get the stain. Instead, he headed to the store without me to get the stain. Big mistake. He picked up my Natural Stain color I asked and also grabbed Vintage Aqua stain. Have you seen vintage aqua stain?! IT'S BLUE! I was furious. I was probably the maddest I have ever been towards my husband and what made it worse, was that he didn't see the problem.
His plan was to stain the entire table this vintage blue and rub it off as soon as you put it on. This way the wood grains would pick up some of the blue and in theory rub off, so we could use the natural stain over it. In his head, he thought it be cool. His arguing statement was "Our walls are blue. Why can't we have a blue table too?". ARE YOU SERIOUS?! I let him test out his idea. Even though everything within me hated it. As soon as he started, I broke down and couldn't stop crying. We built a gorgeous table together, spent 6 hours sanding off all the old color, we put so much work into this table over the years, and you just destroyed it with that stain. The idea didn't work like he thought. It looked like you painted the table blue. I was so mad. I was so annoyed. I hated it. Purely hated it. And in that moment, I hated my husband too. He was mad at me for not liking his idea. I was mad at him for what he just did to the table. Before the stain was even dry and he was busy, I went and started sanding it off. I couldn't look at it and I wouldn't have this table look like that. A table that is basically like a child to us. I'm extremely attached to it. Aaron was pretty upset that I sanded off what he was trying out. So upset that if I hated it that much, than it was left to me to sand it all off. It took 2-3 more hours to sand off the blue. It didn't all come out of the wood grain. *ughhhh*
"No one ever said marriage was easy."
Marriage is not easy. D.I.Y projects are not easy. Putting the two together is not always easy. We made it through. We put our differences on the project aside. After staining it with Natural color stain, I felt like we were back on track, and Aaron was starting to see why I liked it too. Note: since staining it with natural, the color of wood has darken a bit. This is to be expected.
As you can see in the picture, the knots of the wood are still dark from the original stain. There was no way we could get by that. But I think it gives it character and tells a story. The natural stain has darken a little since we originally stained it. Oddly to me, it kind of blends with the stain color of the chalkboard I built and it matches well with the oak cabinets in our kitchen.
This project was stressful. It tested our marriage. I really thought things were going to go far south that weekend. Luckily, the table did not win. We love each other very much and have went on to do many other d.i.y projects after this haha. I absolutely love the way this table turned out!
A few extra things we did to the table were:
added support brackets under the "bread board" ends. We did this because if you pushed or leaned on the ends, they would creek. We didn't want them to become weak over time or crack. Adding the supports fixed this problem and made it more supportive!
we did a epoxy finish on top vs polyurethane. It's so shiny! Aaron did the epoxy finish. It was his first time ever using it. Why did we go with epoxy? We wanted a almost glass top looking finish. It also filled in the seams of the wood boards and prevents crumbs from falling in between there. It also makes cleaning the table a breeze!!!! This was a MUST with two children. They are so messy. Note: you can not use most multi-surface cleaners on epoxy finish- soap and water is best- multi-surface cleaners have ate at the finish in some areas.
Did You Give This Build A Try? Tag Me Now!
We hope you enjoyed this post and even though we went through some high and lows in this d.i.y project- don't let it prevent you from trying a more difficult project. Good Luck in your D.I.Y's
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