Build Your Own Farmhouse Dining Table
AdvertisementBuild Your Own Farmhouse Dining Table – Save money and build your own farm table and benches from dimensional lumber. Easy to follow detailed plans. This construction is focused on simplicity and efficiency, while producing a solid table that will last a lifetime. The Farmhouse Dining Table and Chair Set can easily set you back over $1,000. This sturdy and functional kitchen table seats 4 people easily on the benches, with extra room for two at either end of the table if you add extra chairs. This dining room table is approximately 6 feet long and 36 inches wide, not including the benches, which nestle under the table to save space. This is the perfect DIY woodworking project that will save you money and doesn’t require tons of tools (planer and joiner help, but not necessary).
This beautiful rustic trestle table can be built with pine lumber that can easily be found at local hardware stores and can be adjusted to almost any length or width. You can also choose to stain or paint the table in any color you wish.
Build Your Own Farmhouse Dining Table
The first step is to choose the timber. All the wood needed to make the dining table and benches for your farmhouse can be found at your local hardware store. You’ll need a bunch of 4×4s for the trestle table and bench supports, 2×10s for the table top, 2×8s for the bench tops, and some smaller boards for the cross supports and legs.
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Inspect each board and make sure they are relatively flat and straight. This applies in particular to the boards that will form the top of the table and benches. You want them to be as flat as possible and as imperfect as possible. This will significantly reduce the grinding time later.
Note that for the 2×8’s, which are for the counter tops – it’s cheaper to have a 10 foot cut in half since the counters will be 4.75 feet, otherwise you need 8x boards which are 8′)
If you’re looking for the complete cutting list, see my plans for the farm table here. (coming soon)
Set up the miter saw for cross cuts and cut all boards on the cutting list to the appropriate length. I like to use a miter table and a clamped stop block with roller supports to ensure accurate and consistent cuts. See my projects on how to build your own miter saw table and saw horses. Here we will make all the cuts except for the boards which will be tables and worktops.
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After you’ve made all your straight cross-sections, set up the miter saw to cut 45 degrees. Use a stop block and make all 45 degree cuts on the trestle supports for the table
The next step is to fire up the band saw or jigsaw and cut out the round over design on the legs of the table and wooden benches. I made a template using the curvature of a coffee can lid and drew the same pattern on the right side of each 4×4.
This step is completely optional. You could instead go for a more boxy or triangular design, but I think the round top really makes the farmhouse dining table stand out and look more unique and homemade, as I’ve rarely seen this design available commercially.
It is important here to make relief cuts, or cuts that run perpendicular to the line you are cutting. This allows the saw band to turn without binding to the wood, which can cause burns and cuts that are not smooth.
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Cut with a blade of the appropriate width, here I’m using a 3/8″ wide blade, which was a bit too wide for this curve. I would recommend going slow and using the relief cuts to tighten your curve if you don’t have a smaller blade.
Measure and trace the outline of your 2×4 for the top of the trestle support, then cut it out with the band saw. It should be tight, to strengthen the table.
You can also cut a 45 degree angle on this board with the band saw. I recommend laying out the trestle support first and then marking your line based on how your 45 degree supports line up.
Take the straight boards for the table top and orient them so that the end grain alternates. Make sure that no boards that have the same grain direction touch each other and this will keep the tabletop flat. When a board twists, it twists in the direction of the grain. Changing the boards helps to compensate for this. Mark the ends of the board with a pencil to remind you.
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Adjust the boards so that they lie as flat as possible, and any defects on the board are oriented so that they are on the bottom.
Once you have aligned the boards how they will sit in the final tabletop, mark which edges will be cut. You will cut all edges that will face another board that we will later attach. You can keep the two outer edges intact on the far left and right side of the table. Repeat the same process for the worktops.
The next step is to use the table saw to rip about a quarter inch off each marked edge of these boards. This will remove the round over that the dimensional lumber has, so that when the boards are put together, they will be flush with no gaps.
Carefully rip the boards using a secure rip fence as well as spring boards and roller boards to help guide the cut. It really helps to have two people for these cuts. Press down on the board so it stays flush with the saw table and use a push pin towards the end of the cut.
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I recommend keeping all of these boards at their maximum length as it can be easy to accidentally snipe boards towards the end of a cut. We will cut them to length later when they are assembled.
Before we start assembling anything, all the pieces need to be sanded well. Since we are using dimensional lumber, start with 80 grit. Be sure to hit all surfaces except the bottom of the boards that will be the table and bench tops.
Spent most of the time making sure everything is sanded to 80 thoroughly. Then move up the succession. It is very important not to skip grits here. You have to walk to avoid scratches.
Start with 80 grit on the orbital sander, then move up to 100, 120, 150, 180 and 220 grit. It is up to you where to stop. Since this is a rustic piece of furniture, I stopped at 100 on most pieces except for the table and bench tops, which were sanded up to 220. You don’t need to spend as much time on successive grits as you did on 80.
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Pro tip: Just sand the table and worktops to 80 grit for now. You will need to sand them again to flatten them later after they are assembled. Once you are flat, you can move up the sandpaper grains.
The first part of the assembly is to assemble the two large trestle supports for the table. Lay them out first and make sure all cuts are accurate and even. Note the length of the screws used and the thickness of the 4×4s. We need to drill some holes to countersink the screws so they have enough wood to grab onto.
Clamp down the parts you want to assemble, using clamps or your trusty woodworking bench. Then measure how deep to countersink, then insert a forstner bit into the drill masquerading as a depth gauge. Since our deck screws are 3.5″ and a 4×4 is actually 3.5″ thick, I used about a 1″ countersink depth. Drill 3 holes for two 4×4 connection points on the “I” frame.
Try adding a small metal washer under each decking screw. It really increases the bite that each screw has, tightening and strengthening the connections.
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Put an extension and a phillips head bit on the impact driver, then add 3 screws in each of the holes you just made.
Once the “I” frames are assembled, we can move on to adding the four diagonal supports for each frame. Using a simple drill and countersink bit, add two 3.5-inch screws at the connection point of each 4×4. Repeat this process for all 8 supports. Ask a friend to hold them in place while you screw them in, or clamp them to your workbench.
Using the countersink bit and four 1 5/8″ deck screws, attach the 3/4″ thick triangles to the bottom of the trestle supports. You can repeat this process for the benches now if you want to save on setup time.
Now we want to make our table look like one! We will measure the height we want our larger cross brace at, then measure and drill two 3/8″ diameter countersunk holes about 1″ deep on the outward facing sides of
