Farmhouse Table Approach

[Noah Starksen]

I’m new into woodworking and my wife has tasked me with building a farmhouse table with breadboard ends for our dining room. I’ve done a bit of research into what others do and there seems to be 2 main categories.

1. Typical tabletop build. Glue edges of long boards. Then attach breadboard ends (multiple approaches to this, taking wood moment into account). Then attach top to the base.
2. In the build of the base there are lateral boards built into it. Then the tabletop boards are placed on top and screwed to these boards from the bottom. No glueing necessary.

Are there pros/cons to either of these approaches?

[Jamie Buxton]

#2 has the possibility of gaps between the boards that form the top. If you want a rustic table, perhaps this is okay. There are zillions of outdoor picnic tables built with deliberate gaps between the boards.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Noah, if you go with option 1, I'm a fan of splines in your long boards to keep them lined up at glue-up, as they will be hidden by the ends.