So, we are in the middle of the long, long term process of renovating our little cape here in southern RI. What was once a spare bedroom is going to be a dining room.
You can't have a dining room without a dining table. After seeing what she liked (pottery barn, restoration hardware etc), I started wondering how hard it would be to just build something myself.
Keep in mind, I have absolutely zero prior experience with woodworking or furniture building of any kind. It was more of a "I wonder if people DIY this sort of thing."
I found plans for a six foot farmhouse table (it's just the two of us) and decided to give it a shot.
The whole thing is made from pine dimensional framing lumber, with the exception of Douglas fir legs. I was afraid to commit to using nice hardwoods for a first project, in the event I ended up with something unusable.
Here's the result!
[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/06/7yhy****.jpg[/IMG]
...the first meal on the new table.
Many, many lessons learned. Next piece will be better (an end table), but overall I am pretty happy with the result. Two coats of minwax dark walnut, 3 coats of semi gloss poly, and a coat of furniture wax. So much sanding - the harbor freight belt sander paid for itself many times over. Joinery courtesy of a Kreg jig, 2.5" coarse thread pocket hole screws, and Gorilla wood glue.
She wants a planked sideboard like the one restoration hardware sells for three grand. I found plans for a near clone online...hmmm...