Remember this post? The one where we thought it would be fun to build a table, then decided not to?

Well, Jim still wanted a DIY table- so here we go!

First off, he found a set of plans.  (If you want to see the plans, Google “Ana White Outdoor Table”.)  We are modifying the dimensions to be narrower- a 28″ deep table rather than the 35″ the plans suggested.  It’s meant to be more like a buffet table rather than as an eating table.  Actually, it’s going to act as a parking shelter for the daycare toys when not in use!  Ha!

Anyway- here’s the design we are using as our template:

We went to Lowe’s (5% off when you use a Lowe’s card!) and bought our lumber.  Oak was super expensive, cedar too rough (and expensive!), pine was too knotty and soft, hemlock was prettier but we decided to go with douglas fir.  And I wanted to stain it, which was going to add another level of complexity, but that’s MY level not Jim’s so he was OK with that!  lol.

Nearly all of the lumber is 8′ or 10′ 1×4 boards except for the legs which will be built from 2×4’s.

So first up was laying out the boards to prep for staining:

Then staining:

In retrospect I probably should have used a conditioner for more consistent staining, but the guy in the paint department told me I didn’t need it.  Oh well.

24 hours after staining 2-3 sides of each board they were still too tacky to flip and stain the still bare side.  So we waited 48 hours before applying the next coat.

The boards sat in the garage for almost a week before Jim had a chance to work on the project again.

First up was to cut all the boards to length.  That was relatively easy and fairly quick.  I was not able to help him, though, so he had to rig up stands to support the boards while cutting them.

After cutting all the boards to size, he built the underside of the table:

We bought a Kreg Jig to assemble the table.  That was a looooooong process to pre-drill every screw hole, each board was secured with two screws on each end plus another in the middle.

Here’s a dry layout before the Kreg Jig process was started:

And here’s the finished product!

No visible screws on the table top or the side skirting.  We DID use bolts for the legs though so that during the winter months we can remove the legs and store the table in the shed to keep it from prematurely weathering.

Since all the wood was stained prior to cutting the boards to size, this meant raw ends.  Raw ends often absorb a lot more stain and end up being much darker than the top/side surface.  I read through some woodworking websites and learned that if you sand the ends with 600-grit sandpaper, the stain will more evenly (and lighly) absorb.  Well, whaddya know- it works!  Oh my gosh each end felt like silk after the sanding.

But look how even they came out- not any darker than the top:

So there you have it…..a DIY patio table that was relatively easy to build, just time consuming.  Well, and the $200 in lumber and special screws.  Ha ha ha….

I think I see more of these tables in our future.  Maybe.