Farmhouse Dining Room Table!

Hello! Hope you are all having a good day. I am SO excited to show you our latest big project that we finished. (And I say, "We" because my husband built the whole thing. I helped with staining and finishing.) A new farmhouse table for our dining room!!! Or more precisely, A dining room table for the dining room. How exciting is that!? Up until this point, our dining room has been fairly unusable because all we had for a table in there was a long metal and plastic folding table that my mother-in-law loaned us for awhile. It was a table that she normally used for assembling flowers, so not really a looker. All I had for a tablecloth was old IKEA curtains. We used it on and off for many holidays and it worked great for us as we couldn't possibly afford a real table. But then I found a tutorial for Ana White's Farmhouse Table. She is amazing and builds all kinds of furniture that you see pretty often on Pinterest. You can spend hours on her site viewing all the gorgeous stuff she has made. When I saw the table that she built (for $100 in wood. This does NOT include all the tools you will need), I knew we had to give it a try as it was just what my husband and I were looking for. And most farmhouse tables cost thousands! While it cost us more than $100, I think all totalled we ended up spending $300 for the whole project. Which is not bad at all! The most expensive part was the Kreg Jig that you have to have to make this. But I guess once you buy the darn thing, you will have it for other projects....like the matching bench that I am going to beg my husband to make next. 

So I won't give you a tutorial for this, as Ana's are pretty thorough themselves. But I will show you the whole process we went through building it.

Here is the table when it is all built, but it is not stained and the top is not attached to the base yet. My husband rushed to get it built before Princess's 4th Birthday Party so that we could have all the kids sit there for activities and cake. For previous parties since there was not much seating, everyone always kind of stood around and it always drove me crazy! 

We did end up making the top of the table a little longer and wider than Ana's. We wanted to have a table that could seat 10 and it does! It's a little tight with that many, but it is definitely do-able. I am really excited because that means we should be able to fit all the adults at the table this Thanksgiving. When does that ever happen!? And I have a great idea for the kids table this year, so stay tuned for that.

Then months later, we stained it. My husband built the table back in July, but we just never got around to finishing it until now. The stain we used was Rustoleum American Walnut. Which is funny, because it ended up being the same one that Ana White used on her table. It only needed one very light coat (a little goes a long way), as we didn't want the table to end up too dark. We stained the base first as we wanted to mount the top of the table before staining it, just in case the stain caused it to warp.

 The top of the table, waiting its turn.

We stained the underside of the tabletop, then screwed it to the base (which was a workout indeed). Then we sanded the top to get off any dried glue or lumpy spots, then distressed it with a chain and a hammer and then stained the top. The tabletop was a little warped before, but as soon as we mounted it, it straightened out. Thank goodness!

Lastly, I sprayed it with several coats of polyurethane to seal it all in and make it safe to eat off of.

Then it was finally finished!

Now all we need is a bench and some chairs! I realized when taking these pictures that I am totally showing you the dining room before it is finished, so you will just have to forget you saw it after this. I would like to have it completed soon, but there is still a few things I want to do to it before I give you the final Before and Afters. I have plans for curtains, a sideboard, accessories and of course the chairs and bench....So I guess you just get a little preview.

I am really happy with the way the color turned out. As we were staining, it looked darker than we wanted, but it did lighten up a tiny bit and now I love it.

And now for some finishing touches!

I whipped up a burlap table runner for it. It will be perfect for Thanksgiving. Obviously I am excited about Thanksgiving now. I realized that since our table was custom made (i.e. we made it much bigger than the standard table) I will have to make all of the tablecloths and runners for it! Ugh! Oh well, at least that way I can have tablecloths the way that I want them.

Practising my Thanksgiving table landscapes.

Fall baking. We had these Molasses Cookies at a friend's party the other night, where I ate like 6 or 7, then I decided I needed to make my own batch so I could have more. They really are a great breakfast paired with coffee....or an afternoon snack, or dessert. Or all three.

I saw similar stacks of wheat on my new favorite blog Dear Lillie and so I was on the lookout to find my own. Faux versions were way too expensive and not very cute, so I bypassed those. But I finally found these real ones at a local florist/gardening store. Molbaks. It's amazing and if you live locally you MUST go see it at Christmastime. You will feel wonder like a child all over again.

This photo is really dark, but I had to take it with the lights off to show you the chandelier with the leaves hanging off. I really like what they add to the room.

Then I moved the wheat stalks to the window because they kept falling over. I think I like them over there better anyway.

I also added an antler to the table. Man I love those things. So cute and woodsy!

And that's our beautiful Farmhouse Table! I am so excited to finally have it finished and so excited to show you all the fun ways I plan to decorate it for holidays!