Hello friends! I hope everyone has had a great couple of weeks! Sorry for the crickets on the blog, we have been super busy making wood signs and crafts for an upcoming Christmas craft fair.
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This one still needs a frame
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A sample of some of the signs we made!
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But we also made time to make this super cute coffee table! I have been obsessed with herringbone pattern recently, so I was so excited to give it a go on this table! It was definitely a learning experience, but I am so pleased with the results. Grab a bowl of popcorn, this is going to be a long one :)
We used this plan from Ana White for the table frame, which we assembled first.
*My husband bought me new tools! I think he's a keeper :) His drill is older than dirt and we needed a second one anyway, so he bought this Ryobi drill! So powerful! We're slowly replacing our tools with Ryobi. It makes it so much easier to have the same battery for all of our tools. And Ryobi makes great tools! You can buy this drill here. He also bought me an upgraded Kreg Jig! I have been wanting one of these for a long time! The smaller kreg jig we have works fine, but it's a lot tougher for me to use. This is so easy to use and gets the job done so much quicker!!! As you can probably tell from the picture, I love it! You can buy it here.
We got to work assembling the table frame. We followed the directions exactly according to the plan. Build the two sides.
Then connect them.
The stressful fun part begins, the table top! We lined up the pieces for the outside frame so we could visualize how we wanted our pieces to line up and take our measurements.
Trying to figure out how to start. We didn't know what we were doing, ha! Just winging it and hoping it turns out all right!
So far so good. Starting to take shape.
The preliminary pattern is all lined up!
We went back and forth trying to decide how to attach all of the boards. We discussed putting a sheet of plywood underneath and gluing the herringbone pattern down to it. I really didn't like that idea. We thought about using dowels, but we only recently bought a dowel jig and we wanted more practice before attempting such a massive amount of them.
In the end, we decided to stick with what we know and use pocket holes. We were hesitant to use them because we've heard they don't work well with connecting opposing end grains. So we made sure not to screw in too all the way to give a little more space for the wood to expand and contract.
Lined up the outer frame to make our cut lines. I'm sure there was an easier way to do all of this than how we did it (and a way to not have so many wasted pieces). I definitely want to build this table again and perfect the process.
The moment of truth!
One side done! Yes, I know it's not straight.
All done! Yes....there's a missing chunk. Yes, we decided that neither one of us could cut a straight line to save our life.
One more tool later. We are constantly joking that our woodworking business is basically just a tool collection business.
The plan surprisingly didn't call for cross supports. I feel like cross supports add much needed stability. My furniture needs stability, because I know the kids will dance on this table when we're not looking!
Ah, that makes me breathe a little easier. Totally stable for my wild, crazy children.
We had some sections where the wood was damaged pretty bad. I filled in the spots with some sawdust and wood glue.
We took off a little too much material (thanks to our inability to cut a straight line), so we had to make some adjustments. Jeremy is using a
caliper to get an exact dimension
Measurements fixed, now we screwed in the outer frame to the herringbone center. We quickly realized that some of these screws would hit some of the other screws. More adjustments. It's a learning experience right? I think I've used that phrase too many times.
Jeremy routed the edges! So pretty!
Adding the shelf. Excuse the horrible phone pictures! We'll be deep in project mode and I'll remember that we need to be documenting it. So we end up grabbing a quick shot with our phones.
Making sure it's lined up perfectly.
So close to being done! I sanded the whole thing with 80 grit, paying special attention to the edges and the spots with wood filler. Then sanded it all again with 220 grit.
Screwing on the top!
Making sure to secure every side.
I normally don't use wood conditioner, but I thought it would be a good idea with all of the different directions of the wood grains.
Then I gave it a nice quick coat of dark walnut! I didn't want this to be too dark, so I had Jeremy follow with a cloth and wipe up each section immediately after I was done staining. I love how it turned out! That pattern with the gorgeous wood grain! I am just in love!
However, I greatly dislike plastic wood filler! They say it's stainable: THEY LIE. But hey, it's "rustic!" I think that's another phrase we use too often! ha!
We are trying Starbond CA Glue to fill in those ugly spots. The coffee table is in the garage as I type awaiting treatment. Then I need to give it a couple coats of polyurethane. I'll post pictures when it's finally done. I just couldn't wait any longer to share this table with you guys! So, here it is all set up in my living room!
Oh, and we never filled in that little hole. Hey, it's rustic right?
Until next time,
Monique
