labor of love

If you know me at all, you probably know that I can often be found 'keeping my eye out' for something I would like to purchase. When I say I'm 'keeping my eye out' for something what I really mean is, "I haven't been able to find it for the price I want to pay." Such was the case for the 8-10 person dining table I couldn't seem to find and had been 'keeping my eye out' for since we moved into our new house some 9 months ago. This meant scouring craigslist, frequent trips to goodwill and other various thrift stores, and looking for furniture store sales. No dice. Part of the problem was that I had lofty ideas of this Pottery Barn beauty with the equally lofty price tag of $1500.

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Then Christmas came and Josh was gifted with a new miter saw and a drill press to add to his growing tool collection. He knew of my frustration with not being able to find a large dining table in our price range and joked that now he could build me one. The idea was born. Now, my husband is super handy, but I never envisioned him a carpenter. But off he went looking for farmhouse table plans on the internet to see if he could figure out how to build me one. If you're familiar with the DIY world at all, then I'm sure you've heard of Ana White. She is a builder extraordinaire....and she provides building plans....for a farmhouse table! Now her farmhouse table plans were a little smaller than we wanted, but with a few recalculations, Josh had our table in the works.

I'm not about to do a step-by-step, you can visit Ana for that, but here are a few highlights of our process:

Here is Josh feeling excited about his wood purchase and ready to start the table.

Measuring before making cuts. Josh's words to build by: measure twice, cut once.

After all the cuts were done, Josh used his new drill press to make the screw holes.

Once that was done, it was simple piecing together with screws. Voila - the frame!

Here he is making sure his boards are straight. You should have seen this kid at Lowes trying to find straight boards, he is definitely a perfectionist in his work.

This is his "Seriously, Shelb?" face.

I was being persistent that I wanted someone to be able to sit on each end and I wasn't sure the breadboards would hang off enough. This is him proving me wrong.

A glimpse of the top-to-be.

Once assembled, Josh planed the entire top to give it that rustic, this-has-been-in-our-family-for-years antique look.

Wooden curly-q's :)

Assembled and planed.

Now, for the stain. We decided we wanted a dark top and a white painted bottom for that antique look we were going for. Josh was in charge of stain.

I love how the character in each piece of wood came out as the stain went on. You could have convinced me they were reclaimed floor boards.

I was in charge of painting. Two coats.

While I was ready to be finished, "We don't need to paint or stain the underside, no one is going to be looking under there", my 'do it right the first time' husband insisted on staining the underside. "It definitely looks more polished", I relented.

My finishing touches on the table using the metal stamping kit I found in my stocking this Christmas.

Our finished product. Pottery Barn who?

The final step was to prepare the table to fulfill its purpose - a dinner party.

Put out a fresh flower centerpiece....

invite people you love...

...enjoy dinner with friends on your new table!

And I just have to gush about my husband, he built this table in a little over a week, and it is way more beautiful and well-built than anything I could have ever found at Pottery Barn (and was 1/20th the price!). I am so proud of him. It was a true labor of love.


*Check these out if you're wondering about the book wreath or chalkboard pictured above.


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