The Emerald-Shaped Dining Room Table
Bonus picture: proof that I’m basically a disney princess. Little bird flew into the shop, hung out for awhile, then went about his day.
Ok ok, I know those of you on my social media already saw this video, but I’m not sorry. Lol. After all the frustration of the last month, I am proud to say that I finished our dining room table! Phew! It was a wild ride and I’m ready to share that journey with all of you. (Disclaimer: I definitely forgot to get pictures of parts of the build nor did I have plans drawn out prior to starting the build. This was completely on the fly but I guess it worked out ok!)
This build is actually the result of putting built-in benches under the bay window in our breakfast nook. I searched and searched for a table or design that would fit the space, seat enough people, and fit our aesthetic. I found a total of zero that would work, so I was forced to build my own. (And by “searched” and “forced”, I absolutely mean that I did one google search and then used that as an excuse when I told my husband I would have to do it myself.)
I got my inspiration for the shape from the benches themselves. With the angles of the walls and windows, they were already in three sides of an octagon. I knew it couldn’t be a perfect octagon because I wanted it to stretch from the seat at the window, down the length of the longer bench, and fill the space under the pendant light that hangs where the old table sat, hence the “emerald” designation.
As far is materials go, my grandmother had emptied a shop and ripped out some shelves in the office space. She gifted the wood to me to create something with and this was the perfect thing to use them for. All the boards were varying lengths and widths so I used the skills I learned from tetris to piece them together. They had a stain placed on them many years ago that I removed by running the boards through my planer and took all the boards down to a one inch thickness. I went with regular 2x4 boards I had on hand for the base.
Next, I placed the boards on the ground to lay out where I wanted the grains to match, the color variants to flow, and to mark where to join the boards. I realized after measuring everything out that I did not have the clamps wide enough to clamp the boards together. I made the second hardware store trip of this build and grabbed two 48 inch pipes and one 60 inch pipes. (As you can see in the picture to the left, I clearly forgot that a 60 inch pipe is measured from end to end, not thread to thread, which means the pipe I just went to buy for this STILL wasn’t long enough to pull the sides together tightly. So this is my “creative solution” to my own mess up.)
I drilled holes for dowels and placed them about every 8 inches down the sides of the boards along with a generous amount of wood glue. When clamping, I was careful to keep the boards flat and used spare pieced of wood to keep them from bowing at the seams.
While those dried, I started on the legs and base pieces. (Told you I forgot to take real progress pictures, but here’s a snapchat I sent to my friends with the legs upside down behind the table saw. Lol) For the leg design, I wanted something that would be stable, but would allow people to slide along the bench without smacking their knees. I wasn’t comfortable with a pedestal because… the chaos… so once again, to the google machine I went. Once I had an idea in mind, I started winging it. The picture to the left is my poor attempt to explain the design I came up with. For the diagonal pieces, there was no measuring for the angles. Instead, I measured up from the floor 17 inches and then 1.5 inches in from the edge of the top piece. I made a mark at each of those places, laid the diagonal piece of wood, and traced the angles as they needed to be cut. Then, I used my circular saw to just whack the extra off.
Next came the braces to hold the top and connect the two legs together. Can you guess the method I used?! No, not wing it, I actually measured this time. Lol. I wanted the joints to be extra supported so I wanted to place the braces directly under the three places that would have the most pressure placed on them. (Again, see preschool level drawing to the left.) The middle board on the table top is 4 inches wide. To support the joints on both edges of that board, I decided to use a 2x6 as the middle brace. I used 2x4s for the two outside braces and placed them under the seams between boards #2 and #3 and boards #5 and #6. Only the two very outside seams are not supported with a brace under. I was slightly concerned at first but my reasoning was that if it broke, the edge would be easier to fix than the middle. Yes I know, I shouldn’t doubt myself because I definitely proved that I knew what I was doing after I finished the project and tested it out. (See the picture of me having to climb on top to add another layer of stain because I have short T-Rex arms) After adding 1x2 trim and applying the epoxy finish, it would take a large amount of force to break the edge of the table off.
Speaking of the epoxy finish….just..ugh. It turned out absolutely beautiful in the end but I was DEFINITELY not prepared the first time I attempted it. I learned that if you have a light directly over the wet epoxy…and it’s the peak of bug season…and you have to open the back door multiple times to let puppies outside…the light is going to attract bugs to the surface and it will become the world’s biggest sticky trap and definitely cause you to cry while picking the 5 million bugs out one by one with tweezers, ruining the top. You’ll then also cry because it takes HOURS to sand the epoxy to a smooth level surface to refinish the table AGAIN. Not speaking from experience or anything. I’m ok now, just a little emotionally damaged from this process. lol. Also pictured: shop dog giving me some love and encouragement to keep going with this project. Highly recommend a good shop dog before trying new projects. Hahaha.
All in all, I’m in love with the final product. I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did if it had been easy so I am thankful for the knowledge gained. I’m very glad I chose to experiment on a product for myself so that I can provide better quality products to customers. This table has already had so many memories created around it and I can’t wait to see how it holds up in our house. It is perfect for our space and makes me so happy to look over at every single day. On to the next build!
Much Love,
Haley
