Farmhouse-ish Dining Table - Finally Done!

[Tom Bain]

I've been working on this table since March and finally completed it over the long weekend. Our home is a modern-ish farmhouse and my wife wanted something that would work with that style. I decided I wanted to use a rustic wood but in a more refined form than a normal chunky farmhouse table. My design went through A LOT of iterations and sort of combines several styles, including some Greene and Greene flourishes. The wood is reclaimed wormy chestnut with ebony accents. I only filled those imperfections that I thought might cause issues with the joinery or weren't entirely stable, leaving as much character as I could. The finish is a custom stain (mostly to even out the wide color variation in the chestnut boards) followed by Osmo Poly-x. It was a rewarding project with some fun challenges, and looking forward to some good meals in the years to come.

-Tom

464373
464374
464361464362464363464364464366
With end leaves installed: 464367

[Von Bickley]

Great looking wood and a great looking table. The curved legs the ebony plugs and the cloud lift on the bottom rails look great. This is a piece of fine furniture.

[Andrew Hughes]

I like it. The curved sweeping legs look nice.
The boards you layed up for the top look good.

[Tom Bender]

A beautiful application of G&G details.

The joinery to wide breadboard ends looks vulnerable when the table is picked up. Do they seem secure?

[Jim Becker]

That's stunning, Tom! The base just elevates this in a huge way.

[Bill Carey]

Wonderful table Tom. The design of the base is great. Can you share how the leaves are installed?

[Jim Tobias]

Beautiful!! When you take wormy chestnut and take it above it's natural look(which is gorgeous), you've done something special.
I really like it.

Jim

[Tom Bain]

A beautiful application of G&G details.

The joinery to wide breadboard ends looks vulnerable when the table is picked up. Do they seem secure?

Tom -- Thanks, the breadboard ends were a concern so I made them extra beefy. The tenons are 3.75" long and go more than half-way into the breadboards. It was a real chore to drill and chisel those mortises!

464390

[Tom Bain]

Wonderful table Tom. The design of the base is great. Can you share how the leaves are installed?

Bill -- Thank you and sure thing. I really didn't want a center leaf and the resulting giant seam in the middle of the table, so decided to go with end leaves. It took a little engineering to figure out how to do that and not detract visually. There may be better/easier approaches, but this is what I came up with. I basically hid the supports for the leaves, which are 3/4" square steel tubing, inside the upper stretchers. There are wooden "handles" epoxied to the steel tubes with finger pulls drilled in them. I shaped the ends of the stretchers and the "handles" together to make it as seamless as possible. There are also 1/4" holes drilled into the sides of the tubes and the stretchers to accommodate a t-handled steel pin which holds the supports in place or in the extended position. Finally, there are table yokes underneath to hold the leaves to the table when in use.

464392 464393464394

[Ken Fitzgerald]

What a beautiful dining table! I really like the Greene and Greene touches! In both design and execution, well done Sir!

[Mark Rainey]

Tom, that is one fine table, sturdy yet stylistic. And what a choice of wood! We rarely see chestnut on this forum. As a guy who enjoys hand tools, I would love to work with chestnut boards.

[Bill Carey]

Pretty ingenious on those leaves Tom. I like your solution. I may have one more big table in me and if I do I'll probably steal your solutions. Thx for showing it.

[Tim Andrews]

Tom, that’s a beautiful table. Well designed and executed.