Farmhouse Work Table

We have ordered the cabinets...good news, it's finally going to happen, but since we are having the cabinets custom built by an Amish "country" neighbor, he told us that he cannot even start on them until August. Oh well, we have a busy summer anyway. I'm just happy it's moving forward. After compiling my binder of kitchen ideas and looking it through, I realized that aside from the dishwasher that is already in, we can't really do anything else until the cabinets are complete. Except for my farmhouse work table. You see, I've been very busy in my kitchen lately with my newest blog www.juliespantry.blogspot.com, and I've seriously felt the lack of countertop space to work on. But I have an amazing secret weapon and his name is Jeremy:) My husband and I are a great team. I think of it and he builds it for me. The best part about that is that we can make something quite amazing together for very little money. I am so blessed and I know it! I actually cannot believe I did not dream this up long ago! It is a big table and is a work horse. Measuring 7'x2.5', it is big and it is beautiful. It completely takes up every bit of space that my kitchen would allow, but like I always say, we are more concerned about function than the perfect design. Cause we work in this kitchen, we don't just look at it:)

My Farmhouse Work Table (This post is pix heavy)

There he is, my very talented builder! He's building the bottom shelf. I must say that I did most of the painting, so he didn't have to do everything. That's why we are a good team:)

And above you will see the real gem of this project. I really wanted to use reclaimed wood in some way. We searched everywhere for cool barn boards that had the right color to them but more importantly a really good texture to them. So they actually looked their age. My hubby got these tongue and groove boards from a house remodel he was doing for his cousin. After a few coats of varnish, I fell in love with the color and texture of these boards...perfect!

I know you cannot read this, but my hubby insisted that we keep these two boards smooth side up that read the following: OJ Johnsen 1878 Modena Buffalo Co WI. So it's age is on display for all to read on the top shelf.

 

The second shelf goes in. Jeremy notched out the long boards supporting the old shelf boards. So they fit in perfect without having to screw them in. I can just pop them out.

 

Cross supports are put in. These are needed to support and screw the top boards down.

 

Here he is predrilling the holes that the screws will be driven into. You can also see that two drawers were built, one at each end.

 

The drawer at the other end. Building and putting in the drawers was something new for Jeremy. It is not easy to do. But they work great!

 

We did not want screws in the top of the table, so they will be holding the boards from the underside. I know, that is a lot of screws and aside from the lumber, screws were the highest cost of this table. But you will see why so many were neccessary.

Now the top is going on.

 

Above you can see that these boards were not perfectly straight. Getting a perfectly straight board is very hard to do. That is why, so many screws were needed. To pull out any board inperfections.

See pulled down straight by the brut force of very high quality, heavy duty screws.

But some boards were bowed. So a strap was needed to pull the board straight in order to be screwed in properly.

 

The top is done and this is where Jeremy exits the project...at least until the drawer plates are put on which is the very last thing.

 

Since our table is not going outside anytime soon..... or ever, we had to use water-based everything. Kind of a bummer cause the stain color choices are very limited, but it's worth not having the smell. I'm very sensitive to strong smells. So first goes down a coat of pre-stain, wood conditioner.

This stainable wood filler became the one big miss in this project. To fill the cracks or not...I wasn't sure. I decided to fill. But I've never done this before and I was a bit nervous. It wasn't until after it was done when Jeremy told me that it would probably stain a darker color. Oops, I should have been a little more careful. Precision has never been my thing. I should have had Jeremy to it.

The filling got a little sloppy in the far right crack. I will be reminded of that forever:(

 

I did just one coat of rosewood waterbased stain cause I wasn't crazy about the color and I wanted to see the wood grain.

 

Then five coats of water-based poly.

 

Drawer plates and pulls are put on and the table is complete. Isn't it a beauty. Jeremy said if he ever made this table for someone else it would cost $2000. Well I think he said $1500, but I say 2 grand:)

 

The happiness and space that this table gives me is worth way more then $2000. Especially when I know how much this table cost us. Because of the reclaimed wood (the shelves and posts) and some materials we had on hand. This table cost us an estimated $175. It is likely less then that but it's not any more then that. Small price for a happy wife:) Happy Mother's Day to me!!!