My dining table

Ok, I made a table and bench and high chair months ago. And wanted to wait until I made matching chairs to go with it before posting it. But, I don't seem to be getting round to doing that (what with the camper taking up so much time and all, plus it's getting so cold to work out in the garage).

So I'm going to show it off with our old, naff chairs.

I turned 30 in May (still haven't come to terms with it). And with some birthday money I bought a nice set of plates (@ half price!). An actual nice set which I loved. Mint chocolate colored. I had in mind that when I built my table I'd set it with this set and take some gorgeous photos. So I left my new dinnerware sitting in a box. For months. Before finally conceding that I'm never going to get around to making these chairs (at least not any time soon) so I might as well enjoy my birthday dinnerware.

So I excitedly opened the box and admired my beautiful, deep brown and mint green plates and bowls which brought me such joy. And I enjoyed them for a whole week before they started getting smashed left, right and center. It was foolish of me to consider a nice plate set before retirement when my kids are grown. Lesson learned.

Here's our old table. It was gifted to us within a week or two of moving to Nebraska. It's amazing how God provided for our needs through generous people, when we really had nothing, knew nobody here and were just living by faith and being so well taken care of. This table served us well for 4 years, but as our family started to grow, so did our need for a larger dining space.



And by the way, one of the things I love about homeschooling is that you can do it in your pjs or even your (disposable - for shame) pullups; whatever time you stumble out of bed. That works for me!

Of course the plans for this table come from the amazing Ana White. I love her furniture plans and the way she lays it all out, so easy to understand with clear instructions and lots of eye candy.

This was honestly a very easy build. Very straight forward, nothing too complicated. I still managed to mess something up, which I'll elaborate on.

But first, here's the finished table, minus gorgeous photos or nice chairs or nice dinnerware (though I did set out 2 of them!). That's the high chair at the end. The table and high chair are messy, but I wanted to just get this post done and couldn't be bothered trying to get it perfect.






I'd like to also put it out there, that I'm not looking for compliments here. Firstly, this is all Ana White's plans, so no credit due to me for that. It was fun and easy to build, anybody could do it. And also, my husband gives me way too many compliments as it is (he's such a sook...if you don't know what that means then perhaps I should get the Scottish Word of the Week segment going again...) and honestly, the rest of me is big enough, I don't need to go getting a big head too. Let's keep it real. No compliments necessary.

Here are a couple pics of the making of.



Look how dreadfully messy my garage is! Yuck.





And in spirit of keeping it real, here's how my table looked when I first finished it.



See that sagging end? I tried so hard to live with it, and to love my table despite it. We went with it for about a week, but it just kept standing out like a sore thumb. So I had to attack my table with a knife and then some more destructive instruments and try to make it right. I had Rene help for moral support. It was emotionally difficult to do, not knowing whether I'd be able to get it structurally as solid or fix the finish on it after hacking it apart.



Yeah I just couldn't ignore that anymore.

So here goes nothin'









Ahhh, that's better.



I'm so glad we fixed it. I'm 100% happy with my table now. I went ahead and did some roughing it up at this stage and refinished it and I much prefer the finish on it now. It's a bit more rustic and varied.





Here are some of detail shots.









My only complaint is this beast is so darn hard to clean. I love the size, it fits our family round it with room to spare (which I remind myself of every time I see adorable, tiny, new babies in the nursing mom's room at church...), it's great for playing games on (killer bunnies anybody?) and we have so much more room now for crafts and homeschooling. But it's like a work out trying to run all around it to wipe it down, you can't reach all the spots from one location.





Looks like I don't have many pics of the high chair, but here's Ally sitting on it, enjoying the height it gives him (unfortunately he has since figured out how to climb on top of the table from the high chair...)



So there you go. That's my dining table.



San Dimas High school football rules!

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