It's done!
Since moving into our home last Fall, we knew that we would need a new dining room table. Our IKEA table has been great...but, we bought it 9 years ago when it was just the two of us, and it was starting to feel small (okay, it was also starting to feel a little wobbly, and it bothered me that any of our 3 elder children could move the table without much effort).
I wanted something bigger. Something heavier. Something our children would always have fond memories of and eventually fight over when we die.
So, we priced tables online and at "furniture stores"...ouch. Then we went to our favorite standby for furniture, the World Market. We found nice, affordable tables (they were having a sale), but here we learned about Matt's expectations. Anything with a softer wood was out of the question because it would scratch easily (we do have 4 kids), and the table we like the most and almost purchased eventually got vetoed because it had a wood veneer on the top. I was OK with it because to me it looked like a beautiful table, but to Matt it was too much money to spend on such.
So, onto plan B...What do you do when you can't find something affordable of the quality you want?
You make it yourself!
My awesome husband Matt (whose wood working experience consists of high school shop class) took over and signed up for a Community Ed class for wood working. He also purchased some rough cut walnut from a local professional wood worker who was a friend of a friend.
It took him a loooong time, working from January through July. The class was 9 weeks and he come home with the top put together minus the bread boards, and everything else planed, sanded, and measured and cut...but not put together. So, he had to find time at home to work on it. It was an hour here and an hour there working in the unfinished basement. 4 months later it was complete.
Here it is:
The design is simple, but I am very pleased with how it turned out. Matt is fairly pleased as well, but being a perfectionist about his work, he still gets bothered by little flaws (that only he notices).
The photos don't do it justice, but you get the general idea of the character of the wood.
(and this will look so much better when we don't have our dirty old carpet anymore)
Here is a leg to show more of the deliciousness of the wood. It's not stained, we really just wanted the natural beauty of the wood to shine.
This photo makes it look a little lighter than it is, but you can see the variations in the wood.
I'm sure Matt could write a manual about what to do/ what not to do. This was his baby. I however did not have much involvement in the workings, except through encouragement and sometimes keeping my mouth shut!
Matt did look at some designs online, and then just made up his own plan(which is how Matt does most projects, all successfully so far). He also got advice from the same woodworker he bought the wood from. He was a great resource (His name is Matt Zimbelman, but they recently moved out of the area, so I can't even plug his business anymore). Matt also knows the exact dimensions; I know that it comfortably seats 8.
I don't know the exact cost anymore, but the class was around $120, and the wood and supplies were around $400. So, it turned out not to be cheaper than a World Market table (on sale), but the quality of the wood is better and the literal blood, sweat, and tears that went into this table make it priceless!
Now for some chairs...
