It can be said that the best plan is one that can be changed if needed. Well my plan for the table has been changed. I was intending to make the 3m x 1.2m tabletop myself, using hardwood sourced from a friend. But a perusal of Facebook Marketplace found a 3m x 1.2m solid timber table nearby at a very reasonable price. With my wife along (to make the decision as to whether it would be acceptable), a visit to the seller resulted in the purchase of yet another table along with 12 chairs.
The table had a genuinely nice top and had been a board table prior to belonging to the seller. The base was not of interest to me, so it was discarded (made from veneered mdf) as being of no use for any other project. It took 3 people to load the tabletop onto the roof racks of my ute.
My wife thought the chairs were quite comfortable, but they were not in good condition. We made the decision to refurbish the chairs and have them professionally reupholstered – so I will make the story of them into a new blog post at a later date.
Back to the table.
I stripped the finish from the pedestals and legs that came with the first donor table. Then after trying several different stains, used a Jarrah stain to bring them to a colour that fitted in with other furniture and our Sydney Bluegum floors. My friend provided several hardwood planks from which I made the new pieces to join the 2 pedestals. This enabled the pedestals to be separated by the appropriate distance for a 3m long table.
Then with the help of 2 of my sons, we put the tabletop onto the pedestals and screwed them together.
The table is now complete. However, I am going to strip and re-stain the tabletop to better match the pedestals. Total cost of the table project has been around $500 for a 12-seat table. That includes 20 chairs, some of which will be on-sold, and others being refurbished. This project has also thrown up another project to strip and stain the nearly 40 year old pine dresser seen in the background of the photo below.
