Our 10 person 35 dollar DIY Dining Table

Happy Friday, friends!

I’m about 2 months late on this one-but I finally wanted to share our behemoth table that we were so excited to complete the weekend before moving into our new home!

If you follow me on Snapchat (@absolutelykylie) you watched this beauty transform, and if you don’t, that’s okay because I’m about to share how we created this 8-10 person table for $35.00. Yep, you read that right, thirty five smackers.

One weekend as we were moving out of our first house and bringing up the 167^th load of our junk up to storage, we drove by this junky little table that looked like it was solid wood, had incredible bones, and  had a bright white “free” sign in front of it. Ya’ll. The heavens parted and I almost set up some orange cones around that table so that no one would snatch it before we could grab the truck!

Jake grabbed our truck, and we couldn’t get it in fast enough! It was already pretty large, but it had a leaf as well making it easily an 8 person table, which is exactly what I wanted for our new dining room.

Once we inspected it, we knew it was going to need a little extra lovin’, and my dad suggested we add a new tabletop-which is exactly what we did! With lots of his help, we created this rustic/reclaimed table for only 35 bucks in lumber, and a little bit of elbow grease.

We started with different sized planks to give it a more “barnwood” look, and my dad laid those over the top of the table using his nail gun to secure them to the top.

As we did this, all hands were on deck painting the legs annie sloan “ graphite” (the same color we’d like to paint our cabinets when we remodel the kitchen next year!)

Once the new table top was glued and nailed down, we used the electric sander to make sure it was nice and smooth, then we filled the gaps between the boards with wood filler, sanded that down, did it again, and FINALLY got to staining- the super fun part!

 We used 3 different stains, walnut, driftwood, and ebony all by rustoleum. We used driftwood as the base, it’s a nice neutral grey, layered in some walnut, and used the ebony VERY gently with a dry-brush technique to ”age” the wood. Once that was done, we took the sander to it again to really blend the colors and give them a worn appearance, and then hopped in with some white paint and another dry brush for more texture.

I really don’t know the best way to describe this process, my dad is just the barnwood master. He can make new wood look old like it’s a special talent, and we just let the evil genius get to work, and watched from afar!

Once your stain is on and cured (about 24 hours) your patience will really be tried while applying the polyurethane. We opted for 3 coats, to make sure it was VERY easy to clean (it is our kitchen table afterall) and each coat requires 24 hours of curing time, so all in all, it was about 4 more days before we could bring the table into the house.

But friends, it was WORTH the wait! We eat at this table every single night, and paired with our tufted grey chairs, it just makes my heart swoon! These flower boxes were leftover from my best friend's wedding, and make such a cute centerpiece filled with magnolia flowers. (where are my fellow Jojo fans at?)

Moral of the story, never be afraid of a piece of free furniture. Anything can be made new again with a little lovin’, and you just might find yourself a show stopper!

Dining Chairs // Dining Bench // Sunroom Chair // Light Shades // Similar Lanterns (but so much better!) 

Our main floor is very open-concept, so we don’t really have a formal dining room, so I can’t say we have much more to add to this space. We swapped out the light fixtures, built the table and added the chairs/bench, and I think other than the occasional centerpiece swap-out, we’re going to call it at that.  I mentioned in this post that I’d still like a bar cart, and that stands, but I just don’t know how to go about it yet! I just imagine toddling fingers pulling the whole thing down and smelling like a frat party, although I LOVE the idea of being able to make visitors any drink they choose. Any suggestions?!

Thanks for stopping by-make sure to follow along on Snapchat to view our house progress…we’re supposed to get a rainy weekend, so that means we’ll be nice and busy inside!

Until Next Time,