Holy Table... part 2

Happy Friday everyone! I finally remembered to take my camera to my mom's house and was able to get some decent photos of her Farmhouse Table in action. So to end the week, I'll share my version of Ana White's Farmhouse Table.

 Here is all of the lumber materials needed. Doesn't look like a table, does it? We splurged and got the turned legs and we are so happy we did!

The first thing I did was lay out what would become the top of the table. I cut my breadboard ends, marked and drilled pocket holes, and glued and screwed it all together.

The next part of constructing this table is to build the frame. This was simple for me because I kept the full8 foot length of the side aprons  and just had to cut both end aprons based upon the final width of the top minus the width of two legs. Here's the pieces cut with pocket holes predrilled. Doesn't look like a table frame does it?

Time for the legs! We laid the end apron on a spacer board then attached it nice and square to the legs.

Next we used the same spacer boards to raise up the side aprons and attached them to the legs. And a frame was born! I added 1x2 pieces about every 12 inches in order to screw up through to attach the top.

Now we laid the top face down and center the frame on it and screwed it on! It's that easy! As you can see, this table is about half the size of my whole kitchen!

On to the finish work. Sand until your arms seem like they might come off! I think I did 120, 150, 220 grit. Whew, more than an hour on that! Then I distressed it lightly and sanded it lightly again. Once it is all sanded and whipped clean it was time for stain. I used a mahogany gel stain from Minwax. I applied 3 coats, which was a challenge because I was working in my cold garage. So this is where it became time consuming!



After applying one coat of poly I decided it was too cold (heaters just could not keep up) so we waited a few days for that coat to dry and moved it to my parents house where I put on one more coat of poly. Over the next few days my Dad so kindly put on 3 more coats. After a few days cure time she was ready to use!

Here is the first coat of poly.

And here it is after a total of 5 coats of poly!

Things I would change if/when I do a table of this size again:
1) I would never make a bread board end so large again. I would stick to a 1x6 or smaller. With such a large size we worry about children putting too much pressure on the ends. But so far so good!
2) I will make the legs removable. It was a bear trying to get this table into the house. Thankfully the width was just narrow enough!
3) I won't tackle this in the winter months! Construction of the table took only a few hours but finishing in freezing temps took weeks waiting for warm-ish temperatures

I can't wait for the next one! This table was by far my favorite build to date!