The Making Of...

Ok, truth be told,  I did not think to take a whole bunch of pictures while I was making the table.  The ones I did take I emailed to my husband to annoy him.  He wasn't exactly excited that I wanted to play with circular saws and nail guns (he was babbling on and on about losing fingers and blah, blah, blah)

Here are the ones I did take:

This is the first time I used the Kreg jig.  I love this thing!!  It is AHMAZING!!  It was simple to use and simple to set up.  

It makes these pretty little pocket holes and they make the board meld together seemlessly.  It makes the whole table process easy (well this is my first project, so I don't actually have anything to compare it to, but these holes made it easy for me). 

This is me using gravity to secure the top boards together.  Gravity is my friend :)

This is the table, unfinished and in my unorganized (to say the least) garage.  I was super impressed...LOL!  I had sanded all of the wood before I put it together and that was a time saving tip that I read on this website: sawdustandpaperscraps.com.  Sandra is AHMAZING!  I wanna be like her one day :)  Check out her web site,  you will not be disappointed.  

This is the table with just the stain and one top coat.  I used Minwax Express Color Wiping Stain in Oak.  This was my first time staining so I did not buy enough tubes.  I only bought one tube and then had to go out and buy another tube.  It is really easy to work with.  You just take a cloth and wipe it on, let it sit for a minute and then wipe it off. Then I sanded it and applied another coat.  The color was just what I wanted.  I was so relieved because I had read many times how staining can go wrong and I had worked so hard putting that darn table together... 

  This is the top coat after two applications.  I used Minwax Polycrylic.  It is a water based top coat.  I  ended up putting three coats on.  Each time I sanded and then added another coat.  This was the most tedious part.  I now hate sanding, but I have three kids and I wanted my beautiful table to last longer than a week ;)

And this is my finished product.  Yay!!  I love it!

I can't WAIT until I start my next project :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

Kathy