DIY Farmhouse Table

Finally! I've been wanting to create this post since December! We have finally completed our DIY Farmhouse table setting for 10. Since we moved into our new house we knew we would eventually need a larger table. We were using a 4 person, bar/pub height table. It was tiny in the larger dining room and not feasible for entertaining with family or guest. We would have to constantly pull up random chairs or bar stools to fit everyone. So we began our search. We wanted something nice that deserved to be in a "dining room", something large to accommodate our family and friends, and something a little rustic to go with our home decor. Wow! What we found at furniture stores ranged in price from  $2500-$5000 and would only seat up to 8 people. We do not have that kind of money to spend on a table therefore we turned to Pinterest. We immediately fell in love with this look from Anna White building plans and DIY project from Ashley at Shanty2Chic.

 





Anna White has very detailed directions, supply list, and pictures to help with this very large DIY project. According to her website, we should only spend about $125 and 15 hours to complete. I guess that could be accurate if you already owned every tool necessary to build this and stuck with the plans to the T. We did not and we spent around $260 in wood, paint, and stain. However we were blessed to have my father around, he owns every tool known to man and is a handyman/carpenter/professional DIYer. He let us borrow the necessary tools and gave us some much needed advice and assistance during some more difficult steps. The original plans call for using only pine 2 x 4's cut in a gazillion different sizes. We opted to use Poplar wood in the center of the table top (it's a softer wood with a more flat surface and slightly different texture.) We also wanted a two tone paint color, wood on the table top and shabby chic look on the bottom. I usually make my own chalk paint for any project we do around here but because this was such a big one, I reluctantly opted for the real stuff from Annie Sloan. We wanted a white finish with gray showing through underneath. We ended up using Pure White and French Linen (a quart of each) for the gut wrenching price of $76. Yeah, it hurts to even say it.

I'm gonna go off on a tangent for a moment about chalk paint...I get asked a lot how good DIY chalk paint is compared to the "real" stuff. My answer...they are exactly the same and I kind of prefer my own mix over the expensive stuff. There I said it. There is not much difference in quality, product, or finish. The only major difference is the price and the lack of color choices for the "real" stuff. I actually became quite frustrated while painting this product because I kept thinking "I could have made this color and saved soooo much money!" But you live and learn right? I will not be purchasing this product again.

Ok back to the table...
Brett built the table in basically 4 parts: 3 bases and the table top. I was able to paint and distress the bases while he spent a majority of the time finishing the table top with multiple rounds of staining, sanding, and polyurethane. Once all pieces were individually finished we put it together. And done! Yay! It only took four months to complete but I am soooo happy with the finished product and so very impressed with my man's carpenter skills. This is the first major item he has ever built, what an undertaking.

 

Well now that the table was underway, we needed chairs. We wanted seating for 10. I don't know if you've ever looked into purchasing dining room chairs but they are slightly over priced ($70-150 a piece) well you can do the math...off to Pinterest again for some inspiration. I really liked the look of different style chairs all painted and upholstered the same way like this

obviously a little less contemporary in design and different colors but you get the idea. We visited multiple thrift stores and garage sales, we found a few chairs we liked but ended up getting most of them at a second hand furniture store that gets all the damaged pieces from Room2Go. Some of the chairs were scratched, dented, legs broken, etc but we bought them for $10 and some even free. Brett doctored up the damaged ones and I began painting. Aren't they ugly? The one's with the backing are seriously from 1970 but we thought they would make some good end chairs.  The only thing that really need to be new were the seat bottoms in the two really old chairs. Brett just cut out the same pattern from some plywood we had in the garage.

  The original design was to paint all the chairs the same as the table base, white with the gray showing under the distress. I used the same paint to get a uniform look but after we painted some all gray and some white with the distressed look, we really ended up liking the solid gray. So I sanded down some of the white paint (yes that means I wasted some Annie Sloan paint and had to purchase more! tears) and completed them all in a solid gray. Then came the upholstery. This was my first attempt at changing upholstery. Honestly the hardest part was pulling out all of the old staples, they were rusted and kept breaking. Then we found some fabric we liked at Fabric.com. I wanted to buy enough to have extra in case I made a major mistake or one of the kids got carried away with markers or ketchup. I think I got 6 yards for a total of $35 and free shipping. Not bad right :) I already had some batting and we reused all of the cushions/padding. I attempted to trace the design on the fabric and cut nice and neatly but got impatient and just did my own thing. I also added some piping along the bottom of the cushion to give it more a sophisticated finish. Overall, I think they turned out all right.

And the finished product all together. (disregard the bare and boring room, the remodel is coming in 2014)

I think the total cost of the table and chairs was around $450-475. We still need a few more chairs but compared to $3000, not too shabby!

We have quite a few more DIY projects and room reveals (nursery, kids bathroom, guest bathroom, etc) coming so stay tuned!

-Lissa