Idaho

Today Ben and I worked on building an end table.  Before you get too excited, I'm not posting pics.  Yet.  I'll give you a full photo breakdown when it is painted and residing in my living room.  Instead you are getting a photo of our very high quality (HA!) lumber.  I thought it was funny that both the wood and the muscle both came from Idaho.

You might be wondering why we are building a table.  First, I rearranged our living room and needed a new end table.  Our $10 Lack tables from IKEA have been abused by our two year old and it is time to send them to the IKEA in the sky.  Second, I had a very specific size of table in mind. Our couch and chair are super deep so I need something that would fit between them.  I really wanted something that was 35 inches x 35 inches standing at 18 inches.  Not an easy size to find. Third, my husband is a post-doc.  Not a super high paying position. I needed something somewhat cheap but sturdy.

I decided it was time to build one.  

My friend Shannon introduced me to a website about a year ago.

  Ana White Furniture.

Ana, posts free plans for knock off designer furniture.  We decided to build the Square Farmhouse Table and cut the legs down to 18 inches. 

I'm thrilled with it.  As soon as it is painted I will post photos.  

If you are thinking about undertaking a similar project, I will share with you a couple of things we learned during the in the process.

Lesson #1: Make sure your boards are straight.  We bought white wood since this is our first project and I didn't want to ruin good lumber.  All in all, this has worked out fine.  A couple of the boards aren't super straight but for the most part I have been able to fix this with Lesson #2.

Lesson #2:  Buy an orbital sander.  I got an early birthday present to go with the eShakti dresses I ordered (that's a whole other post). I love love love my sander.  I foresee many projects in our future.  I evened out the planks and now I have a lovely level table.

Lesson #3:  Use dry wall screws AND when the guy at Lowe's says you won't need to pre-drill your holes, do it anyway.  It made things SOOOOO much easier.  

Hopefully by Monday I will have something competed to share!