Making a Dining Room Table

About a month ago, we set out on a mission to find a thrift store salvageable dining room set. We went to every thrift store in this area and even drove 45 minutes away to hit the thrift stores there! No luck :( For a crappy looking table and chairs, people were still asking over $100! That seemed like too much to me, so my husband decided he would build a table.

The plan we ended up settling on consisted of seven 2x8x8, four mailbox post anchors, and two 2x4's for the legs. Here's what we ended up with:

We took six of the 2x8x8's and laid them like a picnic table. We took the other 2x8x8 and cut it in half and that was how we put the table together. It looks like this:

See how the boards on top lay on another board and then the leg is drilled into that board? To put it together we simply took long screws, not too long because we didn't want them to go all the way through, but long enough that they went through both boards, and screwed each board into the bottom 2x8x8. (Of course we drilled them into the bottom so you don't see anything from the top of the table).

To put the legs on we used mailbox post anchor. We wanted something that would be really really sturdy and the lowe's people said that would be the sturdiest. They cost $15 each (and we had to get four, eek!) but we don't want our table falling apart! This is how each leg looks:

The mailbox anchors were a really ugly green but I used my FAVORITE spray paint to darken them to match the table:

The picture is a little blurry (sorry!), but the color is oil rubbed bronze. This stuff is honestly the best!

The table started out as a light wood but we darkened it up using this stain:

After we stained, we used polyurethane to give it that glossy look. Word to the wise: in order for your table to have a smooth feel, you HAVE to use the coarsest sandpaper. We used a medium coarse and (after we had stained and polyurethaned) we had to go back and re-sand it so we could get the smooth feeling we were going for. (We thought the polyurethane would give it that feel but we were wrong, its sandpaper). We also learned after this process that they DO make a stain that contains polyurethane and we will be using that next time! Also, don't use the cheap brushes, we ended up with brush hairs all over our table, which luckily sanded out, and when we stained again, we used pricier brushes.

Here's the color of the table:

During the process, I was afraid it wouldn't end up with that nice reddish color that was on the can but after everything, it did turn out with some red and I LOVE it!

Overall, this project was pretty easy. It would have been easier if we hadn't had to re-sand it, but even with all that, it still only took us about three days. That's mainly because we only worked on it in the evenings and every time we stained or polyurethaned it, we had to wait about 24 hours for it to dry.

It measures 6 ft. long and 3 1/2 ft. wide. It will easily fit six people and if they are really skinny, it would probably fit eight. I can't wait to try it out when my family comes for Thanksgiving!

See ya soon!
Nik