DIY Table in an Afternoon

I wanted…no needed…a big farm table for when we have large gatherings that spill off our screened porch and this gorgeous DIY Farmhouse table from Ana White was simple enough to build while my kids were napping.

This large table will serve as a picnic table with a little more class. Thanks to Ana White this was a super simple, inexpensive, and fast project to tackle. Her post felt timely as my daughter’s birthday party was last weekend and I needed more seating options. If you look closely you can see the DIY hopscotch mat to the left on the deck.

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According to Ana’s plans the table should be about $50 in lumber. Maybe it is cheaper in Alaska but I pay more here. I prefer to get my wood at my local lumber yard; I find it higher quality, they will look for the good pieces, and they load it for me. Even still I think picking up the wood and unloading took longer than building the table. Seriously.

Total project cost was under $150. Not bad!

Hopefully someday we will have a great little workshop set up, until then we are a little all over the place. Some work gets done in the garage, some in the back yard, and some in the basement. I ended up unloading some wood in the back and carrying anything that needed to be cut down to the basement to use our compound mitre saw. The cuts went quick…and again, I think moving the wood look longer than cutting the wood. I should have just carried the saw upstairs.

Assembly

The assembly was simple but used a ton of screws, I purchased a box of 100 deck screws just for this project but finished that and started on our regular stash. I was concerned about the benches repeatedly sliding across the finished rug surface so we put on these little furniture foot pads to keep the wood directly off of the deck and make the benches easier to move.

If you are not building this for a fixed location make sure you assemble on a flat and level surface.

Sanding

The wood is framing lumber so it can be rather rough and full of imperfections, I love that look so I sanded just enough to take off the worst of it. If I were using this table indoors I would have taken the time to sand to a much smoother finish. This is totally doable and the changing table I built for my first child was out of framing lumber which still looks stunning.

Staining

The stain I used was new to me and I didn’t love how it applied. I typically use Old Masters or General Finish which I have great results with. I do love the color (Early American) but the wood did seem to just drink this stain. I’ll definitely plan ahead in the future and stick with what I know. It took about 2 hours to stain. If I were using this indoors I would use tung oil like Ana. I love tung oil and that is actually how our floors are finished but more on that another time.

Seal

I will seal the table with the General Finish 45o Exterior. It is easy to apply, looks fabulous, and I’ve had great experience with it’s durability. It is also what I used to seal my front door and windows.

What do you think?

The total cost was $117 and total time is about 6 hours working inefficiently. I am so happy with this build and think it looks amazing on top of the DIY Outdoor Rug. This deck is slowly but surely coming together. New to building? You can totally do this!!!

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