And one day when I was walking through ARC Thrift Store I found my inspiration piece:
For a grand total of $37.50 and help from a friend with a truck, I brought it home!
Of course since I've never used a tool more powerful than a drill I would need to enlist some help...so who better than Mom?
We removed the old top:
And started building the new one:
Many Farmhouse Table DIYers are using the cheapest lumber that you can buy to make their table tops. Now personally...I like inexpensive options. Who doesn't? BUT let's be realistic. We are a military family. Cheap doesn't hold up to military moves (or my kids for that matter). And if I was going to put this kind of effort into building a table, I wanted it to be a quality, hardwood table. So I purchased Red Oak. Cheap? No. Worth it? Absolutely.
Before buying the oak, I did all of the measuring and had precise calculations of how many pieces of lumber we needed and how long each of them needed to be cut. But then while at the store decided that it just didn't seem quite long enough. Sooooo, we had them cut the boards a few inches longer. Oh, the complications that decision caused! Adding length to the boards meant that the end boards (which would have been supported by the table base) were now going to hanging off the table base and left with no support whatsoever. So we had to come up with a solution to add support for them.
Here was the solution:
We bought Oak 1"x2"s and put them around the bottom edge of the entire table. I'm actually so glad that we did this because it makes the table top appear thick and I love that look! We then added some cheap pine (0.51 per board from the Home depot bargain bin) to screw the base into the table top.
I love, love, love the way the top turned out...but I still learned a valuable lesson. Never make changes to precise calculations on a whim in the lumber department!
After putting in a lot of elbow grease this was the new table top:
A vast improvement from the old one!
While all of this building was going on...I started the search for chairs. I searched and searched and searched. In my search I realized something. Chairs are expensive!!!
In a perfect world I wanted these chairs from Pottery Barn:
But at $250/chair + tax...that just wasn't happening.
So after searching and searching and searching some more, I found these chairs on Craigslist:
They matched the table legs perfectly and they definitely had potential. The only issue? They came with another table just exactly like the one that I had already bought. I decided to go ahead an purchase the table and chair set from Craigslist and sell the original table. The lady I sold it to was also happy to take the extra table top off my hands.
The new to me table and chairs with the top we built:
Already looking pretty good! But it still needed some personal touches.
Starting with fabric.
I found a few fabrics that I just love, Love, LOVE by Dwell Studio:
&
And so the recovering of chairs began.
Love the fabric...need some paint!!
And at last...it is FINISHED!!!
I LOVE IT!
It was a lot of work and even more fun. It was full of mistakes...it is still full of flaws...but as is life. Mom and I made lot's of fun memories making this table. And I'm so excited for the memories my family will continue to make around this table for many years to come!
Have you ever taken on a project like this? One that you didn't know whatsoever what you were doing? If not, I encourage you to! Who knows what you can do?
P.S.
I found a table very similar to mine online. Just a table...no chairs. Guess how much it was selling for? $2110! Maybe someday I'll make a business out of it.
