Pottery Barn benchwright farmhouse dining table

Submitted by Nathan1342 on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 21:57

UPDATE: For everyone that was asking to see additional photos, I have uploaded them all to flickr. Here is the link: HERE Since doing this table I have built probably 15 more just like this one and developed a much better process then in the pictures above.  If you have any questions or want to chat about it further shoot me a comment or email at [email protected].

I had originally seen this table on the Pottery Barn website. My wife and I really liked it but couldn't afford to pay the $1200 bucks after tax and shipping. it didn't look to difficult to build so I decided to give it a shot. The wood for the top of the table was almost 3in thick 4.5in wide and 51in long. It was wood from an old pallet that was used to transport a very large air handler. Very heavy dense wood. Since the lengths were only 51 inches I opted to put 2 horizontal pieces on either side to extend the total length to approx 70in. I was inspired by the plans for the benchwright table that I saw on this site but chose to deviate from the plans on here to make it as close to the real thing as possible. I also happen to have access to very thick pieces of hardwood. The only thing I had to buy at lowes were the legs. The legs are 4x4 Douglas fir posts. The top pieces were all glued and screwed together. The ends were also done this way but had a very large lag bolt that held them together to match the pottery barn table. This was originally very rough wood so anything to help get the warp out was used. The legs are set at a 10 degree angle and the table stand 30 in tall. The hardest part of this table was finding the turnbuckle and the threaded rods so it could officially be 99% like the pottery barn table. I also had no idea how hard it was to find left hand threaded anything. I ended up finding everything I need at McMaster.com and my local Fastenal store. To make the brackets that went on either side of the rods i simply bought a piece of 1/8 sheet metal at my local Home depot and cut it to size. They also sold hammered brown paint which gave the metal a worked old look. Once this was all constructed I used two heavy coats of wood conditioner to seal the wood. This was the key to getting the color I wanted. It tells you on the can not to let the wood conditioner dry on the wood but if it does, when you apply the stain you get a 100% consistent color. Worked wonders. It almost felt like I was cheating. I used a water based condition and stained it with rustoleums "dark walnut" stain. Finished it with 5 coats of minwax semi gloss. I only did 5 coats because I was brushing it on and had trouble getting the bubbles out of it. In the final picture it looks much shinier then it is in person. The last picture of when it was still in my garage is a better indication of the final finish. I have a boat load of additional picture, so if you have any questions or want to see more pictures of how it was constructed, shoot me a message. Thanks!

Estimated Cost
300
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Minwax Semi-gloss
Rustoleum Dark Walnut Stain
Minwax water based wood conditioner
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

neilfsmith

Thu, 10/16/2014 - 06:54

Great Table! your version has many of the aspect that I want to inlcude when I attempt could i please get the link for more pictures.

 

Again amazing table and thanks for the write up

Benwest

Thu, 11/06/2014 - 14:34

Hi Nathan, 

                 I love the job you've done here. I have also got plans to make this (have done a 3D Sketchup model and drawn plans). I'm wondering if you would mind sending me the plans, or giving me access to the extra photos on FLickr as I'd love to compare how you've done some of the details I'm currently working on. Kind regards, Ben [email protected]

Benwest

Thu, 11/06/2014 - 15:21

Hi, my comment is marked as spam but it isn't!! I'm a real person, not a robot! ;-)

fullbasket

Fri, 11/14/2014 - 04:52

Perfect! Thanks so much for sharing and helping the rest of us. I havn't read through all the comments yet, but can you share the pics from Flickr? We are fortunate enough to have access to all the wood we want. We choose what we thought was a downed Ash tree, but after cutting it yesterday to get it out, it looks more like Maple. Super excited! We are going to also leave a live edge and build the base exactly as you have. As a matter of fact, we stumbled on this site looking for the turnbuckle. So all details about that in particulare are appreciated. I'm sure many people have already asked. I did see where you shared the link before, but nothing was there for me to click on. Thanks again!

Sarah

JordanM

Wed, 06/03/2015 - 07:55

Great work! Curious to know what method you used to get the top as flush as it is... thanks in advance!
Jordan

In reply to by JordanM

Nathan1342

Fri, 06/19/2015 - 13:39

Hey Jordan,

Google "clamping culls" they are easy to make and really assist when glueing up a panel like this. even if you buy the pricey parallel clamps you will still have some cupping in a panel this wide. Clamping culls really help to minimize this. Then take the belt sander to it and have a fun few hours!