DIY Outdoor Farmhouse Table

Disclaimer: This post is brought to you in partnership with 3MDIY.com. All the ideas are mine and the content is still just as awesome as ever :)...or so I would like to think so. Enjoy!

You may not remember, but we finally got our patio concrete just a few months ago. I've been waiting years for this! Since we've moved into our house, I've had a dirt patio. May sound extravagant, but it's not ;) Especially when it snowed or rained or became weed ridden. But now...well, that's all in the past. Now I have concrete. I must admit though, I wish it was stamped concrete or something a little more spectacular, but really....I'm just glad its not dirt anymore lol.

So I've had visions of a beautiful patio before the concrete was even poured. And in that patio, it included a beautiful table, of course. The hubs kept wanting me to look for a used patio set for us. I kept saying no. He kept telling me, well, you can always spray paint them and change out the cushions. Then I would look at him in dismay..."duh, look who you are talking to, of course I would change out the cushions and paint it IF we got a used one. But if you also look who you are talking to again, you would know that I would much rather MAKE one." He understood, but I guess didn't care. Cuz he kept mentioning getting a used one. So I took matters into my own hand and just made one before he could mention it again ;)

I'm going to warn you, there are a lot of steps in building this table thus being the bazillion of how to pictures. I made my table approximately 8 feet by 4 feet and 33.5 inches tall. Most tables are around 31 inches, I decided a little higher for the chairs I currently have worked best. You can make the base shorter or taller if you want. Here are the supplies and cuts you need:
Wood:

• Eight 2x6 either 8 feet long each or mine ended up being 92.5"
• Two  2x6 cut at 69"
• Four 4x6 beams, cut at 32" each (have cut at home store, if you don't have a saw big enough to cut, or you can use 4x4 beams also)
• Two 2x4 cut at 38" each
• Two 2x4 cut at 31" 
• Two 2x4 cut at 61"
• Two cedar planks cut at 61"
• Two cedar planks cut at 31"

Supplies:

• Circular Saw
• Miter Saw
• Hammer/Screw driver/Chisel
• Drill and screws (exterior wood screws if creating table for outside)
• Wood glue
• Wood filler
• Sandpaper (Sandpaper in 120 grit from 3M Advanced Abrasives)
• Paint
• Stain
• Polyacrylic
• Safety equipment (eyes, respiratory and ears from 3M TEKK Protection)

Step one: Create Notches
Mark on the bottom of each 4x6 where you want your notches made. I put mine 4 inches about the bottom. Make sure you measure your 2x4, and that it measures at 3.5 inches. If it doesn't, use the measurement of the 2x4. Mine was right at 3.5 inches, so I made the top mark at 7.5 inches.

Next, take your circular saw and put it to the depth of the 2x4, which was about 1.5" for me. Once again, to get the correct depth for you, measure your 2x4 -they all have different measurements sometimes. Run the circular saw through the top and bottom marks you made earlier. This can be scary doing this, so make sure you use the proper safety equipment, or have a professional do it :) When sawing mine, I used 3M TEKK Protection

eyeglasses and earplugs. Circular saws are deafening loud.

Then do three more cuts in between the bottom and top marks.

Next, get your chisel or screw driver and knock out the wood pieces.

You may need to chisel out some stubborn pieces of wood too. Try to make it as even as possible.

Since the notches are more than likely not very even, now you want to make them more even. So get your sandpaper, I used the 120 medium grit paper for 3M Advanced Abrasives

, secured it onto a block of a wood, and started sanding out the notch. I really wished my electric sander could have fit in the notches, but alas, it didn't. So sanding by hand I did :)

Now do this same process to all 4x6 beams. Make sure your measurements are accurate on every leg.

Step 2: Creating the base.
Line up two of the 4x6s or 'legs'. And place your 38" 2x4 into the notches, making each edge flush to the outside edge of the 4x6. Wood glue this in place. And then countersink a screw. Do this to the other two legs also.

Now, secure a 61"  2x4 to the top inside of the legs. To secure, I used my countersink drill bit and angled it through the 2x4 and into the leg.

Now do the other side the same way, you should get something that looks like this. Finally starting to look like a table!

Now secure the shorter 31" inch 2x4 to the inside of the legs on the shorter edge. Do this to the other side also.

Now, secure your bottom 2x6 pieces (69 inches long) to the bottom (below picture). Connect them to the 2x4 that is held in the notches on the leg.To do this, I turned the table upside down. Found the middle mark on the 2x4 that it is going to connect to, and then marked an inch away from the middle mark on both sides. This is the mark where I want the inner part of the 2x6 to be.

Use your countersink drill bit and drill into 2x6 and into the 2x4. Make sure the top (for now, it looks like the bottom) of the 2x6 is flush with the top of the 2x4. Screw and secure in place. Do this to the other side.

And then do this to the second 2x6. It should end up looking like this:

Here's an idea of what your table should look like at this point:

Step 3: Secure the table top
On the top of the base, measure and mark the middle on the both shorter sides.
Get your first 2x6 (92.5"), measure 14 inches in on the bottom of each side and mark. Since the base measures 64.5 inches and the 2x6 is 92.5 inches, the difference is 28 inches. So that would be 14 inches on each side (sorry for the math lecture :) lol).
Now line up the first 2x6 on the left or right side of the middle mark, and then make sure you line up the bottom mark where it will hit the outside of the supporting 2x4. Secure this piece with wood glue, and a screw. You don't want this middle piece to move since it is your starting point and all the other pieces will be following its lead. If it gets moved a bit, it could be a big disaster later on :)

Now add a 2x6 next to the first 2x6, measure and secure with wood glue (not a screw), do this same process working outwards with the other 2x6s. Securing with wood glue first and not placing a screw will give you some leniency when placing the pieces so you can move them and replace them if need be. You will secure them with a screw later.
When you get to the end, it should look like the picture below. You'll have one more 2x6 to go. Glue up and down the base pieces and then secure the end 2x6 with a screw into the legs.

This is what your table should look like now:

Once all your boards are placed and in good order, secure each one into the table base. Use a countersink drill bit first to create the hole for the screw, then drill in the screw. Do this on each 2x6 on both sides.

For mine, I decided to fill the holes. So I just applied some wood filler to each hole.

Step 4: Finishing
Now to make the table pretty! First is to sand the wood. I used 3M Advanced Abrasives

120 medium grit paper to do the sanding. I sanded enough to get ride of obvious marks but kept it 'rustic' enough also still showing some grain. When sanding, make sure you use the proper equipment to protect yourself! This is  a big sanding job, I didn't think I needed to cover my eyes since I was outside, but by golly, but the time I was half way through my eyes were stinging from all the saw dust. Use eyeglasses and a respiratory mask when sanding, once again, 3M TEKK Protection

offers great products for this :)

It took me awhile to figure out what finish I wanted the table to be. It went from white to grey to brown. But I did know I wanted a rustic look. Something that looked older than it was. I looked into staining with tea, but didn't want to wait forever for the process, so I began experimenting with some stain and paint and came up with the perfect look for the table top. This process alone deserves it's own post, so I'll post about that soon and make sure to link back to it here.(Update: Click here to see how to make new wood look old and weathered)

But for now, I just used some paint, stain and sealed it up with some polyacrylic.

Step 5: I also painted/stained/sealed the cedar plank 'apron' pieces before placing them on the table. Once these have dried, secure each piece to the supporting top 2x4 of the base.I secured with wood glue and an exterior wood screw.

Now I have the table for my patio...Just missing a whole bunch of other stuff, like the pergola, the rug, the outdoor chairs, the fire pit, etc etc. But since winter is around the corner, I'll have to wait for anything more until next year :(

At least I get to enjoy this setting for the fall!

I'm not sold on using the farmhouse bench out here, but I think it works for now. Maybe I'll make another one and stain it the same color as the legs, which by the way is a dark walnut from Minwax.

Here's a closer look on the table top finish. I absolutely love the old weathered look. It turned out perfectly :)

Here's a video on some tips you can use when making this table from both me and 3MDIY.com. Somethings I explained in the post, some I didn't and you get a sneak peak on the finishing technique ;) . Sorry about the wind on the last section, it was blowing like crazy!! And here's to being 30 weeks pregnant and still building stuff!! lol sorry, had to say it :) plus you can tell I'm uber pregnant in the video.

 

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