When Shane and I bought our house last year, we knew we wanted to have a nice big farmhouse dining table since we host holidays at our house each year. Once we moved in, I started searching for the perfect farmhouse table within our price range.
We’re not ones to spend a lot of money on one specific item and quickly learned that farmhouse tables are not cheap! I believe the cheapest farmhouse table I found was about $600 and wasn’t the style or color that I wanted.
I love DIY projects and building things and I realized that we could build a farmhouse table ourselves for much cheaper! I was lucky to find a YouTube video which explained how to build one ourselves for under $50 (I think with supplies, we ended up spending under $75) and it was the perfect style for what we were looking for!
A few weeks later, Shane and I headed to our local Home Depot for the supplies and wood to start our weekend project. To our surprise, we learned that Home Depot will cut wood to the measurements that you need (they do not guarantee cuts but lucky for us we had a very nice employee who cut our wood perfectly for us) usually there is a small fee based on the amount of cuts you need. Otherwise, of course, you can always cut the wood to the sizes you need yourself with a saw.
After they finished cutting the wood for us, we picked up all of the other supplies and materials we needed that were listed in the video and headed home to get started.
First, we laid out all of the wood on the ground exactly as we intended to put the pieces together, making sure we weren’t missing any pieces and that they were all going to fit together correctly.
We did make a few changes when building our table compared to the video. See below for a few changes we made vs. what she shows in the video. Along with a few things I would do differently, if we were to built it again.
Here is the YouTube Video we Followed:
Raw Lumber (We used pine/common wood except the legs we used Douglas Fir:
- One – 4″x4″x10ft – Legs (Douglas Fir – often used for farming fence posts)
- Three – 1″x4″x10ft
- Two – 1″x10″x8ft
- One – 1″x10″x10ft
- Two – 2″x3″x8ft (Only need one, if not doing “I” bracket on bottom, see explanation below)
Materials:
- Finishing Nails (2″)
- Wood Screws (2″ and 5″)
- Stain – She uses Minwax Honey (We used Minwax Dark Walnut Stain)
- Poly – Rust-Oleum Triple Thick Polyurethane, Semi-Gloss, Clear
- Wood Glue – She uses Elmer’s Wood Glue (We used Gorilla Glue but won’t recommend that, see why below)
- Sanding Block – All-Purpose
- Plastic Gloves
- Polyurethane Brush and/or Lambswool Applicator (I used both)
- Clean Cotton Rag (To apply stain)
Cut Wood Dimensions:
- 4″x4″:
- four pieces 29 1/4″ long
- 1″x4″:
- two pieces 70″ long
- five pieces 33 1/2″ long
- 1″x10″s:
- four pieces 53 1/2″ long
- two pieces 37″ long
- 2″x3″s:
- two pieces 33 1/2″ long
- two pieces 26 1/2″ long
- one piece 63 1/2″ long (not needed if not doing “I” bracket on bottom, see explanation below)
Differences Between the Table Built in the Video and the Table we Built:
-The main difference between the table we built and the table built in the video is the wood shaped like an “I” between all four legs of the table. When hosting the holidays we usually have about 9 people (It seats 6 comfortably) so we wanted to have the extra seating on the ends to ensure we were utilizing the full space of the table. Had we not made this change, we wouldn’t have the option to push chairs in at the ends.
- Instead of having the “I” shape for support, we took those two smaller pieces of wood (circled below) and attached them underneath, closest to the end lip of the table (noted with arrow below).
-We also went with a different stain color. In the video she uses the color Honey and we chose to use Dark Walnut. I put many coats of stain on to get the desired color I wanted and since it was my first time ever staining anything, I didn’t let the stain dry between layers (since I didn’t know the importance of this step).
Instead, I put very thick coats on one after the other, it ended up turning out fine but it did take about a week for it to dry thoroughly and I had to wipe the table down with a rag a few times during that week to ensure that the table was completely dry before adding the poly.
What I Would do Differently Next Time:
-If we were to build the table again I would likely go with a lighter stain, simply because it’s my preference now but the table did turn out to be a very beautiful color nonetheless.
-I happened to used a different wood glue than pictured in the video since I had one on hand already at home. The wood glue I used didn’t stain very well, so there are areas on the table where you can see the extra glue residue. I’m not sure if I was just to messy with the glue or if her glue is stain-able.
-We recently built a coffee table, which is basically a miniature version this dining table and instead of staining the wood after it was assembled, I stained the wood before. Although, we didn’t use wood glue when we built our coffee table (since we forgot), so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway for us, but staining the wood before assembling might be an option to keep in mind if you decide to build your own.
For the stain, I used Maxwell Dark Walnut and applied it with an old, clean cotton t-shirt with gloves on. Since I put on so many layers of stain at one time, it took 3-5 days for it to be dry enough for me to put the poly on.
I applied the poly with a poly brush everywhere, except on the top, I used a lambswool applicator and loved the application. Make sure to apply the poly a layer at a time and carefully so you don’t get air bubbles, especially on the top of the table. Allow the poly to try as suggested on the container.
Overall, we are very happy with the end result and love our farmhouse table. It was a great project for us to do together. We learned a lot and it only took a Saturday afternoon for us to build the table, plus, it saved us so much money by building it ourselves! We got our dinning room chairs off of Amazon and they match perfectly. We also built a coffee table that looks almost identical but a smaller version with a shelf for storage. I’ll share that project soon.
If you build your own farmhouse table, share a picture on social media and tag me in it, I’d love to see it!
xoxo – Katie
Find our dinning room chairs here!
LadiMerk 