Kitchen Table and Benches

The last piece of furniture I wanted to build before the baby is born was a new kitchen table. Yes, I built one almost two years ago, but it has not held up as well as I'd have liked.

The top is pine, so all the marks from schoolwork shows (one reason why I built the homeschool cupboard), and the boards shrank and cracked the putty and it looks ugly. And to top it all off, it doesn't quite fit in the space we have available- it's a bit too large.

not pretty, right?

Disappointing, but not a complete loss- we moved the pine table out to the shed to be used as a work surface.

After considering what I wanted it to look like and which plans to use, I built a new one, using the DIY Farmhouse Table plans from ana-white.com.

I adjusted the dimensions to better fit our kitchen, so this one is shorter (in length, not height) and narrower than the other table I built.

I added 3 stringers for extra support, since LMS likes to climb on the table and sit on it

I used the Kreg Jig to secure all the flooring pieces to each other- this made the process of piecing the tops together a lot easier

Instead of pine boards for the table top, I used tongue and groove hardwood flooring. It's a hand-scraped hickory finish with lots of character, and it shouldn't show wear nearly as much as the pine on the old table. Isn't it pretty?

Because the edges of tongue and groove flooring aren't meant to be seen, they're not super pretty. I solved that by trimming out the edges with 3/4" oak screen trim that I will eventually stain to match the hickory finish.

a little hard to see in this pic, but you can see the tongue and groove joints

the trim covers the edges nicely, but doesn't yet match the hickory stain :)

For the legs, I used Portsmouth Dining Table Legs in red oak from Osbourne Wood Products. After two tables with pine legs, I wanted hardwood legs rather than the softer (and cheaper) pine legs that don't wear as well.

I made two matching benches using the leftover tongue and groove flooring trimmed with red oak screen trim and matching Portsmouth Coffee Table Legs in red oak. One bench is about half the length of the other because there wasn't enough flooring leftover for two full length benches and I wasn't going to order another box of flooring just for one bench.

There were enough long boards in the box that the table top doesn't have any shorter boards in it (which is the look I was going for), and the bench tops are pieced together from the shorter pieces that were included.

The table and bench legs were definitely not cheap, but Osbourne has a wide selection of styles and materials-  much greater than I could find at any local stores. And their customer service is quite good. I received several emails and a phone call from them, wanting to make sure I had received my order and was happy with it. Can't say I've experienced that before.

I'm holding off finishing the table legs till I decide what I want. I liked the painted legs on the last table, but they got grungy and scuffed. If I did more of a distressed finish it might not be so noticeable? A different color- darker this time?

I sold 4 of the 5 original chairs from our first table (they're in the pic at the top of the post) at our yard sale, and I'll be using the fifth at the homeschool cupboard table. Our seating now consists of the two benches and two green upholstered chairs I got on sale at World Market awhile ago.  The benches allow space for a clip on high chair (like this or this). We used one with LMS and it was way nicer than a massive high chair that takes up space we don't have, so I plan on getting one in a few months for the little guy. The chairs and benches allow for multiple arrangements, which is nice since I like to change things up every once in awhile.

first way I arranged things (the short bench is under the window, though you can't see it in this pic)

then I tried this

and decided to leave it like this for now

the short bench fits nicely along the wall

I love how the table turned out, and it didn't take very long to build. My favorite kind of project :)