Let's build a table

I was asked to build a custom farm table by a very special person. I have to be honest I was excited to build something so beautiful but I was also nervous. I knew I could do it, however, I couldn’t have done it without my sister and Ana White’s online build diagram. I did make several adjustments to accommodate the desires of my client. If you are interested in building the same type of thing I recommend visiting Ana White’s site.

Some of the changes that were made to this plan for our table were:

• The plan build was created from 2” pine. My client has 2 small boys so she needed this to be indestructible! She asked for her table to be built out of a hardwood and 3”. I had to specially order the wood at an exotic wood store because most hardware stores don’t generally stock hardwoods in that thickness.
• I was not able to order 4×4’s for the legs. So I ordered 2×4’s and glued them together. This was actually an advantage because I didn’t have to notch out for the stretcher support.
• My client also wanted the table to be longer than the plans show.   We made the changes to the measurements from a finished length of 85” to 96”. We didn’t change the width.
• We wanted to put a chair at the ends of the table so we made our breadboards larger at 10” and inset the skirt a few inches so that the legs of the person at the end wouldn’t hit the support.

Install

The last part I had to think about was installation. Because of the wood we were using and the size of the table, it would be very heavy. We would need to have the base and the top separate until in the home. We built the base and then the top and then brought them to my client’s home. There we screwed the top to the bottom. I didn’t use glue in those screw holes in case the client ever needs to move the table.

Benches

This plan didn’t have benches included but we thought it would be fun to have 2 benches along one side of the table. We used this plan to create benches that ended up being miniature tables without the breadboards. NOTE: If you are interested in building a bench the standard seat height for chairs and benches is 17”.

We were very pleased with how everything came out. Have you built anything that you are proud of?

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