Dining table - Part 1 - The plan
What am I making?
The goal is to build a dining table that can seat 6 fairly comfortably any hopefully squeeze in 8 when needed.
The table will live in a period Victorian house but with fairly understated modern furniture so we didn't want anything on the extreme ends of fancy/ornate or rustic. I happened to chance upon a video course covering a trestle table build with an aesthetic that will fit nicely so it seemed like a great opportunity to build+learn whilst ending up with something we need at the end of it.
Final dimensions should be roughly the same as laid out in the video at approximately 1900mm long and 860mm wide. This is probably the largest I can go and still get the top out of the basement where I'll be making it, although even at this size that remains to be seen!
Timber
All European redwood pine because it's easy to source and not crazy expensive. Both important qualities when this is all a bit of an experiment being my first furniture-level build.
I bought it all rough sawn, unseen, with delivery from Mid-Sussex Timber Company. Buying rough sawn worked out a fair bit cheaper and means I have a chance of ending up with slightly thicker end dimensions as I can be less aggressive with the prep work, although it does mean there will be some lengthy handsaw rip cuts later in the build.
For the top I opted for 4.5m lengths to give a bit of leeway to avoid knots/splits/damage at the ends and middle of the boards when cutting to length. For the legs I bought closer to final lengths but at the thickness I wanted it was only available in 225mm widths meaning I'll need to rip everything myself (there may yet be justification for a bandsaw purchase from this project).
- 50x225mm x 4.5m x 4 (top)
- 32x32mm (27x27mm finished) x 2.1m x1 planed-square-edge (top end caps)
- 75x225mm x 1.8m x 2 (legs)
- 75x225mm x 0.9m x 1 (legs)
Total cost: £231.71 inc. delivery which was £23 (April 2022 prices)
For the stretcher I have some leftover 2x4 PSE from the workbench build. At time of writing this would have been £18 from Wickes (I don't remember paying that much for it, timber prices are still fluctuating wildly at the moment!).
I would have preferred to buy slightly thicker so the finished dimensions are a bit closer to the original rough-sawn thickness and those shown in the video course but I could only find rough sawn at 50, 75, and 100mm. Bumping up to the next thickness for all pieces would have added considerable cost and a lot more time and effort in the stock preparation. I'm still on the lookout for alternative timber suppliers, especially ones that stock a good selection of hardwood but there doesn't seem to be too many in this area of the country.