Guys, we finally did it. We officially started on the new kitchen table.

I mean, we haven’t purchased the supplies yet (that’s the next step!) nor have we started stripping the wood, but we did set everything up and make a mock-up of how it will look when it’s finished.

 

(Sorry these photos are not the best…we were working at nighttime in our super dark kitchen. Bummer.)

As you may remember, we’re using the scraps from an old table my dad saved from the dump a couple of years ago. It used to be in the basement fellowship hall of their old church. However, it was no longer used and had been disassembled and hauled off to a burn pile. Dad saw the possibility, and since he knew we wanted a big table, he called us to come look at it. We could see the potential (and the money savings—wide boards for a table top aren’t cheap!) so we hauled it home and have been storing it in our garage for a year now.

So, we needed to make a mock-up version to visualize the finished result.

We started by setting up the saw horses, which are close to the finished height of the table…a few inches off, but close enough I think.

We plan to strip the wood (it had been stained dark and shiny) for the top and leave it a very rustic, natural color. The legs will be painted some sort of whitewash/gray/antique white…I think.

We even got out some of our dishes to play with the placement of chairs and serving platters in deciding the finished size of everything.

So far, we have settled on overall dimensions and a design for the legs (we won’t be using the ones that are under there, those are just stand-ins for the real ones we’re going to build).

We also  made the plan for the apron/bottom edge of the table.

I’ll admit I’m a bit concerned the dimensions are a bit large for our wall…however…I love the fact that we could seat 10 people at this table…how awesome is that? I guess we’d better hurry up and then plan a big party, huh?

We still have to decide on the final finish (stain, paint, clear coat etc.) and the final design for underneath the table (we’re considering a metal accent support beam/bar or something else kind of unique.

We both like the rustic look of the old wood, although patching the completely split off right side will be a challenge.

You’ll notice I also have  a lot of work to do in the chair department. All of them need to be sanded, painted, and reupholstered. That sound be fun considering I’ve never refinished anything like this before. (Although it’s just a cushion…not an entire arm chair or couch or something, right?)

We also need to take the future flooring into account (we’re working on plans to either replace or refinish what we have in there now) because that will affect the final choice for the finishes on the chairs and table legs.

And the wall color is a factor…so many decisions to make! So little time to make them in!

As you can see, this is why we ate our special 9 year anniversary dinner (total years together, not just married) in the living room last night. Of course, it was convenient the Sporting KC game was on during that time…

It was delicious and even a little romantic, despite the strange placement.

 

I even made a cucumber dill dip as an appetizer cheese course. Fancy huh? (I say every dinner should have a cheese course!)

But, back to the table….

I’d imagine we have many, many hours ahead of us for this table project…and I’m sure it will fight back…as old boards do…especially when you pair them with new lumber. But, we’re both pretty excited about the potential. I’ll admit it’s fun to pretend it’s finished when I glance at it from out of the corner of my eye.

How do you narrow down choices? Any advice on refinishing versus replacing the hardwood floor? Have you ever built a table? We’d love to see it! If so, did you plan it out and set it up beforehand like this?