My wife wants one and I don't really want to spend a ton of money on it. They look pretty simple to build and my buddy owns an exotic hardwood lumber company so I could have my choice of different kinds of wood to use. What do yall think about doing something like this if I've never built furniture before? What kind of wood should I use? Here is the link to the plans:

http://ana-white.com/2012/06/plans/fancy-x-farmhouse-table

If you've never built furniture before but are relatively handy, Ana White is the perfect place to start. I just built one of her kitchen islands as my first try, and it came out great. You basically buy a Kreg jig and go nuts.

I built a farmhouse table last year and it was easy and looks nice.

I would use one of the hard woods and stay away from pine, etc.

Thanks. I consider myself pretty handy and I have a nice mitre saw so the cuts should be pretty easy. I will definitely buy some nice hardwood from my buddy so it will stain up nice. I know a couple of people that have built furniture before so if I need some help I can definitely fall back on them. It just seems so much easier and cheaper than dropping a grand on a table and another grand on chairs.

We're looking to do a similar table (based on that one, but from another blog) and so I've been digging into it somewhat.

The biggest thing for us is that we don't have a planer/jointer, so we have to find some place that can finish the wood for us (we can't just get it in rough form). Unfortunately, from the hardwood estimates I got (requested S4S since I can't plane/joint them myself) prices are very high. Our cut list was as follows - for a table and bench - (all 8 foot boards, qty in parenthesis) - 2x12 (4), 2x8 (5), 4x4 (3), 2x4 (9), 2x2 (3). The place quotes us a total of over $2,500 for white oak, saying red oak would be about $2,000 and White Pine would be about $1,750.

I'm fine paying a few hundred dollars for wood (even several hundred), but this is a DIY project, so I'm in no mood to pay $2,500 for lumber alone on a project I'm more than likely going to be learning from.

The biggest problems with Pine seem to be that most of the stuff you get at Home Depot/Lowes is construction grade so it has more knots, can be more moist and is much harder to find in good, straight and true boards. They have "select", but the sizes are quite limited from the ones I've looked at and there doesn't seem to be any 2x stuff (which one of the hardwood places I called had mentioned as well).

With your friend as a resource, you will probably have way better access to quality wood, which has definitely been the biggest issue I'm running into. I want a hardwood, but need it surfaced and less than the price tags I've been getting (granted, I've only received a single quote).

Where is your friend - if he's in the DFW area, I might shoot him an e-mail to get some quotes (not asking for a special deal or anything, just trying to find some other folks to call).

I'm definitely open to other options if any of you guys with more experience can lend any advice on how to get some quality wood without breaking the bank.


[This message has been edited by JDCAG (NOT Colin) (edited 5/23/2014 8:37a).]

Built a similar table last year using pine, stained up it looks great and I get many compliments on it.

Just built a coffee table using her plans. Turned out very nice. I used pine since I couldn't find any 4x4s in anything but pine or cedar. This was my first project and now that my wife has seen the site, I've got a ton more lined up. Her plans are super simple.

Also staining and applying poly coat was way more time consuming than I thought it would be.

Where did you find non-pressure treated 4x4s (I'm assuming you just got the lumber at a typical big box store)?

Also, do you mind posting how you did the finish? Our main concern is getting pine to a nice, dark finish and I think my wife would like how dark that coffee table turned out.

Got the 4x4s at Lowes. I had to dig through several to find some that would be acceptable.

I used Rustoleum Dark Walnut as the stain. Used a foam brush to apply it, then waited 15 minutes and rubbed off the excess. That pic was taken almost immediately after rubbing off the excess. I'll get a better pic after I get home from work today showing what it looks like after adding 3 coats of Rustoleum Polyurethane in a satin finish.

Thanks!

Downside of building our table was needing to buy the chairs afterwards...there are no cheap chairs.

quote:

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It just seems so much easier and cheaper than dropping a grand on a table and another grand on chairs.

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Square's post reminded me of this, and I wanted to advise not to make chairs. They're a royal headache to level, balance, etc.

See if you can get away with building a matching bench for one side and buying fewer chairs.

mbole,

I built the same coffee table a year ago and stained with dark walnut as well. Nice work! I went with 2x6's on the top instead of 2x4's though. I finished the table with Formby's Tung Oil and I like the way it turned out. Very water resistant yet without the super glossy shine of poly. It took quite a few coats, though..

Pine will take stain ok, but it highlights imperfections and is soft. That's why i recommended hard wood. I built my table out of pine because hardwoods are so expensive. I figured I'd build the cheap version and see how we liked it and in a few yrs I can build the real thing. I've built quite a few pieces of furniture and try to use hardwoods but this project required too much material.

I also built a bench. For chairs we bought 5 mismatched chairs from a flea market and my wife refinished them and used an off white/antique finish that matches our dark stain well.