We had been looking around online as well as local stores for something that matched our style, fit and budget. With not much success, we figured it was time that we dealt with a little DIY of our own. Now, having never built anything, let alone a whole table to be a place for conversations and fine dining, we wanted to keep it simple to make sure it turned our sturdy enough. Our basic design was a 40x16x75 inch plan that finally became a 41x16x78 inch bar.
We used pine, specifically knotty pine for the rustic, roughed up look we desired and select pine for the base, also we chose to stain it with a single layer of green tea color with a lot of rubbing it off and sanding involved after, so now the table looks like it was probably the pride of a road side pub for years before we rescued it (love that look).
Initially we were suppose to border it on all four sides, but considering we have no tools to cut/ chop wood/ planks at home and we got them all cut to size at the home depot, our borders for the length came our about 2-3mm longer than required and we just simply chose to avoid and put them only on the two shorter edges (sides) looks cool though (check out the pics at the end).
Also, the green color we chose, out of many reasons, one was the eclectic feel that our living room has till now and the fresh/stark contrast it will be to the rest of the stuff. We also used brass screws, angle joints and corners from the top, making them as visible as possible, as opposed to the normal thinking of hiding any nails. Also being first timers at it and crazy as we are, we let the glue stain our sides, the crooked edges go willy-nilly and we refused to fill any gaps created during gluing. All this turned out to give exactly the kind of feel we wanted for the table. It looks like it's right out of an old country hotel at Jaisalmer in India (those of you not familiar with this place, Google now), or from a crafty resort in some artsy town.
Okay, enough talk, check out our newest treasure (such tables if in the size we wanted were going for CAD500-600 +delivery and we made ours in just CAD150/- sweet I'd say!
P.S. We are yet to buy the bar stools, we were planning on white (it will seat three comfortably, so three stools). Also S has now gotten such a hang of it and it was so much fun and therapeutic that we have decided to build our own TV unit (in a turquoise/ sea blue) and coffee table (in chalk white stain) soon.
Oh and there was a piece of the wood left, we stained it to match the pub table and will make it into a tray with door handles on the side to grab it, soon. That chair with a green piece of wood sitting under the money plant- that's it, also the money plant has been planted in an empty coffee tin.