This will be a story in many parts and is about the desire to have a large dining table able to seat the extended family (my wife & I, 3 sons & their wives, 2 grand-daughters and my wife’s parents). We have room for a large table and decided something around 3m x 1.2m would be ideal.
We really do not want to spend big dollars on a table, so the main options were to find a reasonably priced one in an antique store or build one myself.
On a holiday several years ago, we encountered an antique store in faraway Casino (over 900km from home) that had several large tables. So, on a recent caravanning holiday we included Casino in our itinerary. Unfortunately, the store did not have anything big enough for us, so it was back to consideration of making one myself.
I have done a lot of research on sources of reclaimed hardwood and was looking at travelling to Canberra or Western Sydney to source suitable material. And even then, the price of DAR hardwood would set me back close on $2k for the tabletop.
Our search had also assisted in determining the basic design of the table, with my wife not wanting table legs to be in the way of the seating. Her preference was for a dual pedestal-based support for the tabletop. This design element also meant that I would be better with a relatively thick tabletop because I would not have the benefit of rails running the full length.
Almost immediately on return from our holiday I spotted a dining table and chairs on Gumtree that looked like it had the sort of pedestals we were looking for. For only $100 I was able to buy the table and 8 matching chairs. The table was easily disassembled (it was all bolted together, not glued) and I had 2 very substantial pedestals as the start of my project.
Investigation of the table revealed that it was made in Malaysia and the timber is stained Hevea (Rubberwood). Hevea is a sustainable hardwood timber sourced from rubber plantation trees that have been tapped for their latex and harvested at the end of their useful life cycle. I will probably need to sand the pedestals and re-stain them to match the tabletop when it is made, but they are not far off the ‘oak’ colouring we want for the table.
Another side benefit of using a donor table is that I now have a large piece of timber to use to make my serving platters and cutting boards – so watch for photos of those appearing on my webpage sometime soon.
My next step is to obtain the hardwood for the tabletop, and a good friend has offered me some 150x50mm hardwood planks – I just have to check them out to make sure they are okay. I will have to either dress them myself or have them dressed all round before joining them to make the tabletop. That will be the subject of part 2 of ‘The Table’ which will hopefully not be too far away.