Carving time
With Halloween just a few days away, it was about time we got to our pumpkin carving. We haven’t had the best of luck with pumpkins this year. While we were away on vacation, we bought a pumpkin to carve and it was completely rotten inside, so that never happened. This time around, we got a nice solid pumpkin, and with one of those stencil books in hand we were ready to go. We picked the stencil, got it ready, only to find out that our pumpkin was too small for it. DoH! We just decided to free hand it, and have a bit of fun…and so, here is our angry pumpkin! Oh, and the other pumpkin in the background is ceramic…so that’s why that one looks so good.
Fraken-door
While I may not be a big fan of dressing up for Halloween, I do enjoy decorating. Even more than that, MC loves decorating, and when we stumbled across a very cute a clever way of dressing up our front door on Pinterest, we had to do it. With a few pieces of thick matte board, we were able to transform our dark green door into…Frankenstein!
Okay, he’s a cute Frankenmonster, but I like it, and hopefully our trick-or-treaters will like it as well. Tonight we’ll be picking up our pumpkins and doing some carving and finishing up our little bit of Halloween decor. We may have done more, but having been away for a few days put us behind. Have no fear though, when Christmas starts to roll around, we’ll be doing quite a bit more. Enjoy the Frankendoor!
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A better perspective
I meant to update the blog with this last week, but we were waiting until the final coat of polyurethane dried, and then we went away on vacation for a few days. The last time we saw our newly finished table, it still had a drop cloth under it, and you really had no sense of how big/wide it was, so to better understand this, MC went out and bought some new placemats. Now you can see exactly how the table is supposed to look.
the placemats are from World Market, and we’re hoping to bring more of those colors into the room when we eventually decide on chairs, rugs and a couch (all things I cannot build). As you can see (better), we built the table so that even with place settings, we can still comfortably fit six people and severing bowls on the table. If need be, we can still comfortably sit eight people, maybe without the placemats. All in all, we’re really happy with how it turned out. Now we just need a rug under it and some chairs around it, and hopefully we can actually sit and enjoy a large family dinner (or play a board game, like Scotland Yard). Who’s with me!?
Read MoreThe Finished Table
Well, the table is all complete! Before we get into the final product, let’s talk a little about what we did this weekend, lessons learned and the overall project. First, what we did this weekend.
With just a few final steps left, this weekend was all about staining and connecting the pieces. Before staining though, we first applied minwax’s wood conditioner, to make sure that everything would look the very best. We had a slight issue with that, but more on that at the end. Now staining was a more difficult task than we had anticipated, not because the process was hard (it wasn’t), because finding the right stain we wanted was nearly impossible. We don’t have much furniture in our living room (we only have a side table), but we wanted to try to match the color. A slight reddish tone, but still somewhat dark. We started with a Minwax’s “English Chestnut,” which according to the can, was exactly that color. After we applied it on a test strip, it had no reddish tone at all, and was relatively just dark. Next up we attempted Minwax’s “gunstock,” which was just simply too red and not remotely dark enough. The problem with these stains was really that they don’t come in a sample size. Sure, you can buy a small “sample” size for $5, or you can buy a full size can for $7. For each of these, we bought the full size, thinking if one worked, we wouldn’t need to go back to the store. Well, neither worked…that is until we did a little experiment. We took the sample piece of “english chestnut” and applied a second coat of “gunstock” to it. Wouldn’t you know it, we had a look pretty darn close to what we were going for. So that was our plan going forward, a first coat of “english chestnut,” followed by a second coat of “gunstock.”
Once we had (finally) finished staining everything on Saturday and opened all the windows to try to get the smell out of our house, it was time to assemble the table top to the base. First, I attached the four long top slats together using the pocket holes I drilled previously. I had some wood vices that my dad had lent me to make sure everything was flush together.
Then I attached those four pieces to the base from underneath, using the three stringers that went across the base. I made sure to line up the center crease with the long bottom stringer so that everything was even.
Then it was time to attach the breadboards to the end of the table using pocket screws and screws from underneath so no holes would be visible on the table top.
Once everything was attached, it was pretty sturdy, but I was slightly concerned with the breadboards not having enough support. I am sure it was fine, but if someone pushed down hard enough, I was afraid they would break off, and we want this table to last for a very long time. So, I cut 6 pieces at a 45 degree angle and attached them under the breadboards, thus making them rock solid.
With the last screw in, and two coats of polyurethane applied (we’ll be applying a third coat on the table top tonight), the table is finally done. Ignore the drop cloth in the finished picture, I was paranoid about moving it just yet. Oh, and remember last time I said I was going to add a special and personal touch, well, I did. It was this, I added a 2011 penny into the table, that way if this table does last forever, I can always tell what year I built it.
And now for the final product, I must say, I’m really happy with how it all turned out. Now all we need is some chairs and a rug to go under it. I know MC is eager and ready to start decorating it, buying some new placemats and whatnot…oh wait, she already did that. That makes me happy though, because I know she likes it just as much as I do.
Now, about those lessons learned. First off, the whole wood conditioner thing, well, we found it that a drop cloth won’t stop it from getting on your floors. Yup, I spilled it, mere seconds after MC said “don’t spill that.” I actually picked it up to move it and it slipped out of my hands. I blame the rubber gloves. Speaking of which, when using super glue (like I did for the penny), wear rubber gloves. Why? Because I glued two of my fingers together. Yeah, that really happened. I was able to get them unglued, but it wasn’t pretty (or painless). Lesson three, if staining, do it in a well ventilated area. We had all of our windows open and our house still smells. Lesson four, use clamps…for the love of everything, use clamps. Wood slips when you are screwing them together, so make sure everything is clamped down. Lesson five, check your wood (heh heh). We have on board that is slightly warped, which I didn’t notice until I screwed it all down. The table isn’t 100% perfect, but I guess that is what gives it that custom look.
I love it, and I made that with my bare hands. Special thanks to my dad for all the help, advice, inspiration and encouragement. Thanks Dad, that one’s for you 
.
Also, thanks to Tom and Doug for letting me borrow some of your tools. I need to get me some of those.
Read MoreDining Room Table, Day 2
Now that I have cut all the wood for the custom dining room table, rough fit it all together, it’s time to bite the bullet and actually assemble this beast. First thing is first though, I had to drill all the necessary pocket holes so I could prep the table top, the legs, and the strap. This is where my other fun new tool came in handy, enter the Kreg Jig. This handy little device helps to drill pocket holes so that the screws will be centered when you attach two pieces of wood. It comes with a drill bit, a screw bit, and a funky looking blue jig.
You place the wood you want to drill the pocket holes into the jig, lock it in place and based on the thickness of the wood and depth, adjust the tool. Boom, you’re done. Oh, and it gets a bit messy, when you drill like 100 pocket holes. I probably went a bit overboard, but I want this table to be sturdy, especially on the ends. Once I got everything drilled out, I put together the strap. This is the part in which the table top will be attached to, as well as the legs.
That’s my victory pose by the way. Once the strap was put together, I wanted to lay out all the boards before sanding so that I know exactly what I am dealing with. Then I sanded everything down with 60 grit sandpaper so that everything is prepped, smooth and ready to go.
Now it was time to really begin to put it all together. I started with the legs, joined them with the cross brace on the bottom, and then attaching the strap to the top with wood glue and three 3″ screws in each corner.
Once all of that was attached and screwed in properly as well as leveled, I attached two braces on the ends to which the “breadboards” of the table will be screwed into. Again, because this will give the ends so much support I used a lot of wood glue and screws, spaced out about every 6 inches.
With all of that done, there are only a few steps left to go. We have a base all built, and the table top has been drilled and ready to be attached. Before I screw it all together though, we are going to stain it. First we’ll go over everything with some 220 grit sandpaper to make sure it’s perfectly smooth, then since it is in two pieces, we’ll stain each piece (the base and top) and put polyurethane on it all before finally attaching it together. I also need to add wood filler to some of those holes, to try to conceal them a bit better. I also have one other small touch I’ll be adding to the table at the very end, but I’ll share that once I do it. Again, I need to keep you in suspense a little bit.
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About Matt and MC
We just recently bought our first home, and we decided to share our story of our adventures with you. The ups and downs of home ownership, and all the fun we'll have in between. Ignore the typos and just have fun, that's what we're here for. 
