We built a dining table! No really, we did.
I don’t think I ever imagined that we could or would DIY a dining table, but we did and it turned out great. If you want to read more about why we started woodworking, you can check that out here.
We didn’t want to rush when it came to putting together our dining room. It isn’t a room that we will use much, so we kind of put it on the back-burner until now. Once we had all of the power tools and completed a couple of woodworking projects, we started throwing around the idea of building a dining table.
When we were first discussing it, I don’t think we were that serious about building it, but once we did more research, we realized the we could actually do it ourselves. We knew what kind of table we wanted and we also knew how much those tables are at the store. We were not willing to spend the $5,000+ to get a real wood dining table from the store, so we decided to copy their design and make it ourselves.
We copied a Restoration Hardware table and Shanty-2-Chic already had free plans on their website on how to build this table. However, we modified the plans a little bit because we wanted a full 8-foot dining table.
Restoration Hardware Table
Our Table
I outlined a high-level summary of the project below.
Total Amount Spent: $110 for table and $80 for benches for wood. $50 for stain and other materials (the stain could be used for about 20 more projects though)
Total Time Spent: It is hard to estimate, but we would estimate about a weekend for the benches and a weekend for the table. We didn’t get it done THIS quickly because we had other things to do on the weekend as well. But, if you had a dedicated weekend, you could knock it out. We basically completed the entire project in about 3 weeks due to other commitments in our lives (like work….lol).
Worst Part: Getting the top of the dining table on the legs of the dining table. This was NOT fun. It took us a couple of hours because it didn’t fit at first.
Best Part: Putting the top of the dining table together was incredibly easy. This was a little surprising since we kind of did our own measurements and made the table bigger.
What plans did we use? We used Shanty-2-Chic’s plans! You can find them here. We modified the plans slightly because we wanted a full 8-foot table.
Honestly, this project was so much fun for us and it got us off the couch. I loved spending time outside in the garage with my husband while we both tried to learn something new. There were definitely some frustrating moments of the project, but we would absolutely do it over again!
We are always looking ahead to our next project, so I guess it is time to share with you what our next project will be! Drum roll please…..
We will be building lounge/pool chairs! Now is probably a good time to announce that we are putting a pool in our backyard. 🙂 It will most likely be done in the next 6-8 weeks, so stayed tuned for more information on that. Wooden lounge chairs can cost as much as $2,000 per chair, so of course, we are going to be building them (since we spent all of our money on the pool…..). I think it will be a fun and different challenge for us.
So, we have tons of fun projects ahead, and I will be sharing as many updates as I can with y’all. If you want to see more of the day-to-day, I frequently post on my Instagram account: @catheryngrivna
Let me know if you have any questions about the dining table or the process we used. I didn’t want to bore you too much with the details!
Time to sign-off for now and celebrate a little Mardi Gras, am I right?
Cheers!
-Catheryn
I recreated this design and it looks great. It is so unsturdy though! Any suggestions to help stabilize?
Hi Elizabeth – is it wobbly or uneven on one specific side? You could always had an extra piece of wood underneath one of the legs to help stabilize. I think we might have had to do that with ours to get the legs perfectly even.
How many inches are the 4 by 4 legs on the benches?
Hi Sherry – The horizontal mitered pieces are 14″ at the longest and the vertical pieces are 13.75″
Hey hi..I want to stain my table similar to what you have shown here. Its beautiful! Can u lls give all the stain colors you have used here and in the right order and explain the process please. It would be greatly helpful.
Hello – We used the Weathered Teak stain from Sherwin Williams. We started by applying wood conditioner. Then we did the Weathered Teak stain, then we did the satin finish of poly-eutherane (oil-based). We did a couple coats of the poly-eutherane on top to seal it well. You can also sand it down a little between those final coats if you don’t want it to be too shiny.