Tag: farmhouse table

Daniel and Adelle move into their new place this weekend so we’ve been hustling to try to get their farmhouse table finished in time. When we left off, we had fabricated and stained the table top and one bench.

This past weekend we powered up and knocked out a second bench and got to making the farmhouse table legs. We lucked out and our local lumber yard carries untreated spruce 4×4’s. This will undoubtedly be the toughest material to track down if you’re building this project. The big box stores usually only carry 4×4’s in pressure treated and cedar. Neither of those is ideal for an indoor table, but if push comes to shove and you can’t find untreated spruce, go for the cedar.

The legs consist of 4 4×4’s, two stretcher supports, a stretcher and four apron pieces (two short, and two long). The leg uprights need to be notched out for the cross pieces, and the cross pieces need to be notched for the stretcher. Good thing we got a new table saw right?! Right! The easiest way to notch is to make a bunch of kerf cuts. A kerf cut is a cut the width of the blade that usually doesn’t go all the way through the wood. (Kerf is actually the term for the width of the material removed by the blade.) For the notches we made a ton of kerf cuts close together and then banged out the little slices of wood. (you can also do this with a circular saw if you don’t have a table saw!)

We set the table saw fence for the first cut and the blade to 1 3/8″ high (we want the cross pieces to stick out 1/8″ from the leg posts to show off the notches, it will make more sense when its assembled.) We made the first cut on each post then the last cut. We then progressively made close cuts all the way in between.

When we were done (and this does take a while!) we knocked out all the little slices of wood. We were left with a few nubs and errant wood slices, so we broke out the oscillating multi-tool and or made short work of them.

Now, if you EVER see someone cleaning up their kerf cuts like this. DON’T take their advice! That is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen! Use an oscilating multi tool, or a chisel, or heck even a jig saw, but do NOT use a table saw like that. My fingers hurt just thinking about it. Eeeep.

Now lets build some legs. We need to attach the aprons to the legs with pocket holes, then the stretcher support into our notches.

The easiest way to secure the stretcher support the legs would have been with screws. BUT if we used screws they would be visible on the front of the legs where the supports notched in. No way to use pocket holes there. I don’t like screws visible unless there is no other way.

So out went the screws and in came 1/2″ dowels. We purchased a 6′ length of 1/2″ dowel from the hardware store and cut them down to about 3″ lengths. Then we took a 1/2″ spade bit and drilled four holes in a square pattern. We used a piece of tape to mark the bit depth, so that we didn’t drill too deep or too shallow.

We inserted the dowels with wood glue and let them dry. Once they were dry, we cut them down with a coping saw.

Now they were ready to be sanded flush. A few minutes with a power sander and they were looking faaaaantastic.

While we were at it, we also sanded the long aprons, and the stretcher for the table. The table will remain in 6 pieces until its assembled in the new place.

Now it’s time for staining and polying all the pieces, and they will be ready to be assembled this weekend!

We made some headway with Daniel & Adelle’s Farmhouse Table in the last week. We put in one solid days work on the weekend, as well as one weekday evening.

Our work was a bit all over the map, as there was four of us we decided it was best to go our separate directions and knock off different tasks. I will try to focus my posts on each specific topic, and today we’ll get down with how we made the table top.

Bright and early we headed to the lumber yard, bought all the lumber & supplies, and rented a Zipcar van to get them all to the garage. We are using spruce for the legs & supports and gorgeous 2″ thick pine for the table and bench tops.

We inspected the tabletop boards, and decided on layout. We attached the tabletop boards together using the Kreg Pocket Hole system, 2 1/2″ screws and glue.

We added support pieces to the underside of the table to try to curb any warping the table may want to do (we are not using breadboard pieces on the table, so we wanted some extra assurance that things would stay put.)

After that, we clamped on a guide (we used a level) and cut the ends flush on the tabletop with a circular saw. The poor saw had a bit of a tough time with the thick wood

Sanded, sanded and sanded some more. While two people were power sanding, the other two were alternately cutting the rest of the lumber we needed, and hand sanding.

After we could just sand no more, we decided to give the table top a coat of wood conditioner, then a coat of stain.

We let the stain dry, and applied a second coat a few days later.

The table top is now ready for poly, and we can move on to making its legs.

We are not going to assemble everything until we’ve moved it to Daniel & Adelle’s new place, as this huge table would never fit through doors assembled!

This weekend is a holiday weekend in Canada. I think we will be turning our attention to gardening, bbq’s and drinks on the deck. I fear we will not be very productive this weekend!

Any big plans for the weekend? BBQ’s, cottages, fireworks?

Our friends Daniel & Adelle are moving into a new place, and have asked us to help them build a table and benches for their dining space. We jumped at the opportunity. We love building things, we get to try some new techniques, and we get to help out friends. Win win situation.

They have been scouring the web for inspiration for the past few weeks, and decided on a modern farmhouse table and two benches. Their space is large, but narrow.  We took a basic farmhouse table, stretched it out to be 8 feet in length, and shrunk the width. We also designed skinny long benches that will tuck under the table on either side. The table has similar dimensions to an 8 foot long banquet table, and will be able to comfortably seat 8-10 people.

Want to see the plans?

My hand drawings just are not as pretty as CAD blueprints, but you’ve gotta work with whatcha got, right?!

Here’s the details:

• The top is made from kiln dried pine 2×10’s, and the frame is made from spruce 4×4’s and 2×4’s. They decided to omit the “breadboard” ends seen on many farmhouse tables, and instead using three wider planks the length of the table.
• The benches are similar to the table, except their tops are pine 2×12’s and the legs are 2×4’s.
• The table and bench tops will be stained dark and polyurethaned, and the bases will be painted white.
• We will be using the Kreg jig for quick and easy assembly.

The plan is for the four of us to work together and knock out as much as possible this Saturday.  I foresee having someone measuring everything, another person cutting, one operating the drill, and one sanding. Hopefully we can knock out this big (but fairly simple) project in a day!

I will check back in next week with our progress, and a full tutorial & cut list when we’re finished. Wish us luck! Do you have any big projects planned for this weekend?