The Making Of A Table Part 1

Exciting stuff is happening around here at the Dykast household! I have lots to share with you (mostly new decor and other projects) but I will start with the making of my new dining room table. I mentioned in this post that my Dad was going to help me make a table out of reclaimed wood. We started working on it just before Christmas and it’s not finished yet but I thought I would take you step by step how we are making it as we go.

First, we started by choosing the planks we wanted. These planks are from a barn somewhere in Tennessee that are over 100 years old! Pretty cool huh?! Next, we (when I say we I actually mean my Dad) started cutting the wood to fit the size we wanted the finished product to be. I decided that if my table was 7.5 feet by 3 feet it would fit in my dining room perfectly. Here is a picture of my Dad putting the planks together:

table making 1

After they were basically the right size (we will be doing final cuts later) I started sanding with really coarse grit sandpaper to try and get rid of the rough texture.

table making 2

After the table is assembled, we will be doing more sanding so this is just the beginning…

Here is a picture of what the planks look like after the first sanding. The plank on the left has been sanded compared to the unsanded planks on the right:

table making 3

And did I mention what a dirty job this is? Imagine years and years of dirt collecting on this 100 year old wood and then sanding it all off along with the rough texture. This is what you get:

table making 4

Haha!! But it was all worth it! It was also worth the aches in my shoulders and arms from all that sanding. I guess I need to step it up a bit in my regular exercising because I found muscles I don’t normally use. But again, totally worth it. I can’t wait for the finished product.

I don’t know what our next steps are going to be but I will share it with you when I work on it again. I’m enjoying the process and it’s fun to build something substantial but it’s even more fun spending time with my Dad. Thanks Dad for working on this with me!