DIY Farmhouse Table

Our DIY Farmhouse Table is made of pressure-treated pine with a cedar plank top to keep the cost low and make it suitable for outdoor use. Swap in pine for the pressure-treated and cedar, and you’ve got yourself an even cheaper indoor trestle table!

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We did it.

We finally did it!

Our new deck is finished, furnished and ready for the big reveal.

Oh, but not today. Nope, I’m gonna make you wait a little longer for that post, ’cause I’m a jerk like that. 🙂

But I still have something good to show you.

It’s big.

It’s heavy.

And it’s made out of wood.

Yep, the last piece of the puzzle is our new DIY farmhouse table that we’ve been building for the last few months.

As usual, it started with Handan assaulting me with Pinterest pins on Skype messenger.

“My babes, I want a table like this one.” She’d write and then shoot me a Pin showing happy, smiley-faced DIYers building a trestle table.

I disliked them immediately and trusted them even less than I liked them.

Anyone who smiles that much is selling something.

And anyone who smiles that much while building something is full of shit.

Still, I took note of the design and filed it away in the monkey cage my brain.

And then, the inevitable…

“No, wait! I want it like this one!” Another Pin, another farmhouse table.

And again…

“Forget the previous photos. I really want it like this!” Yet another trestle table Pin.

With all the mind-changing that women does, how the heck am I supposed to keep it all straight? My head is like a Midwestern road. Information travels in one ear, and it’s a straight shot through to the other ear where the information promptly exits. Nice and simple (stupid) – in, out, and Bob’s your uncle!

It looks something like this:

Contrast this to Handan’s brain:

So of course, I designed the wrong table on Sketchup. I had to go back in and modify my plans.

And then I designed it wrong again, because I tried to make it too fancy.

But fancy wasn’t what we wanted. We wanted Simple Stupid. If you’re not familiar with our new motto, please read this post.

With that in mind, I finally designed an acceptable trestle table. With any luck, it would look something like this:

The herringbone table top was Handan’s idea. I think it would really set our farmhouse table apart. Or it would reduce me to a quivering mound of jelly. That remained to be seen.

To keep costs to a minimum, we decided to build the base from pressure-treated pine 4x4s instead of cedar. We reserved the cedar for the table top. For indoor use, I’d use straight pine for all of it.

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DIY Farmhouse Table Materials List

DIY Farmhouse Table Cut List

4×4 Pressure-treated pine

• (2) 34 inches
• (2) 30 inches
• (1) 54 inches
• see diagram in post for angled cuts

2×6 Pressure-treated pine

• (1) 61 inches
• (1) 48 inches

2×4 Pressure-treated pine

• (2) 61 inches
• (2) 46 inches
• (4) 19 3/4 inches
• (8) 16 3/4 inches
• (2) 8 inches
• (2) 6 1/4 inches

5/4×6 Cedar deck boards

For herringbone pattern (rough estimates – see diagram in post for angled cut dimensions)

• (8) 36 inches
• (4) 30 inches
• (4) 24 inches
• (4) 19 inches
• (4) 12 inches
• (4) 8 inches

For center cross pieces

• (1) 68 inches (ripped to 3 1/2 inches wide)
• (2) 21 1/4 inches (ripped to 3 1/2 inches wide)

For trim

• (2) 70 inches (ripped to about 2 3/4 inches)
• (2) 48 inches (ripped to about 2 3/4 inches)

Let’s build our trestle table!

The pressure-treated pine we bought was super-saturated with creosote, and it weighed a ton! I had worries that the wood wouldn’t take stain, but I pushed those thoughts aside and started the build.

I first cut my pieces for the base.

Although I had designed those nice curves on the legs, our new motto of Simple Stupid rang through my head, and I decided to just chamfer the ends – basically cutting off a piece at a 45 degree angle. I measured and marked for the cuts.

And then I chopped off the corners.

I next measured and marked the area I needed to cut out to make “feet” on the base. I measured in 3 1/2 inches from both base ends and then up 1/2 inch.

Cutting out this notch would give me four “feet” for the table. I used the table saw and passed the wood back and forth, cutting off 1/8 inch with each pass. That’s about 184 passes for each base!

This got a little tiring and boring, so Handan offered to help. It was her first time using the table saw. I gotta say, she looks way better than I do using that saw!

After cutting out the base notches, we started to screw together the table leg assemblies.

I used a combination of 4 inch deck screws inserted at an angle as shown below.

And 2 1/2 inch deck screws inserted straight.

Once those “K”-shaped pieces were built, I screwed them onto the base along with the small center piece.

I used my Kreg Jig to make pocket holes for the small center piece.

I used 4 inch screws to attach the pieces from the bottom.

It felt good to get this far. The table was shaping up!

Next, we built the top part of the base. This required cutting more notches with the table saw (not pictured).

Pounding the pieces together…

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With the base pieces all cut and assembled, I next built the frame on which I would lay the cedar table planks. I used pressure treated 2x4s and a 2×6 for the center support.

I used my Kreg Jig and 2 1/2 inch screws to build the table frame.

The easy stuff was built. It was time for the herringbone cedar table top. I’d been dragging my feet on this part. There was so much room for error!

I started by laying the center cross pieces.

And then I started cutting and laying the cedar planks for the herringbone top of my DIY farmhouse table. The diagram below shows the lower left quadrant of the table.

I made a 1/8 inch spacer stick so the boards would have room to expand and contract. It would also help with drainage.

Here I am striking a dramatic pose while playing with my spacer stick. It’s important to always look super serious when woodworking, otherwise people will think you’re selling something. By the way, you should totally buy this thing here.

This bit was hard! I had to make a few trips back-and-forth to the table saw.

Eventually, I cut and fit all the cedar for the herringbone top. I stacked them up and removed them so Handan and I could stain everything before final assembly of our farmhouse table.

We used Varathane Kona – one of the best stain colors out there! Staining over wet pressure-treated pine was no problem at all. So the next time some snapperhead tells you that you can’t stain wet pressure-treated, you can give them a firm whap upside the head with a rolled-up printout of this blog post.

We stained the whole trestle table with Varathane Kona, including the cedar.

When all was dry, we lugged the pieces up to the garage. Man, they were heavy!

With Handan’s help, I assembled the full base.

When everything was secured together, I put a couple of screws in the lower support rail, and the base was finished.

Handan and I then placed the pressure-treated frame onto the base and screwed it in.

Man, I was busy screwin’ and sweatin’

0_o

What? We built it in the garage during a humid heat wave! Just be thankful I cropped my glistening torso out of these pics!

And then it was time to lay the table top.

The moment of truth.

I placed the first board and measured for the screw holes. My original plan was to screw the table on from underneath, but that would have been a huge pain in the butt.

Simple Stupid demanded that I screw from the top. Handan agreed.

I used 1 5/8 inch screws for the table top.

On and on I went placing board after board.

When I finished, I trimmed the edges with a circular saw and then attached the mitered trim pieces.

Now, you may be asking yourself why that sander is on the table. Good question. Let me explain.

First off, on a build like this, using rather crude lumber like pressure-treated pine, there was no way that everything was going to end up all nice and square and flat and flush. There were spots where the table needed to be sanded down, especially around the edges. Of course, doing that would remove the stain we already applied, but that was okay because I wanted to change it anyway!

I thought the top looked a little boring, and I wanted to give it a little razzle dazzle by using the same wood aging technique I used for the weathered wood carboy crate.

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Off came the old stain!

And along the way, I flattened the table!

Then I began the aging process, aka cedar-geezering. To properly geezer my cedar, I’d need the following three stains:

I started with the Special Walnut, and slapped it on in the normal fashion.

I let that dry for about an hour, and then I continued my cedar-geezering by lightly applying Varathane Weathered Gray in a splotchy and haphazard manner.

I wiped the Weathered Gray off immediately.

I grayed out about 1/4 of the table before starting right in with the Varathane Kona. I just streaked the Kona here and there and immediately worked it in with the rag.

This process is more art than science, and your own eye must be your guide.

Once I had worked my way around the table, rubbing like a maniac, I pronounced the table well-and-truly Geezered. And man, were my arms tired! I think I geezered myself a little bit.

To protect this old geezer, I whipped up a batch of wipe-on spar urethane by mixing regular spar urethane with mineral spirits.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It says right there on the label not to thin it with mineral spirits, but c’mon people. Live a little.

When the table was ready, Handan and I carried it from the garage to the deck. Let me tell you something, folks. This table will withstand the apocalypse. Jeezum Crow, it’s heavy!

When we got to the deck stairs, I collared The Teenager to help on Handan’s side.

Up we went and placed it in its new home.

It then proceeded to rain pretty much non-stop for the next week.

Look, pooled water! The spar urethane works!

When the rain cleared, I was able to get some dry pics before the next round of storms rolled through.

It was a lot of work, but we love our new DIY farmhouse table!

Stay tuned for the deck reveal post!

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