My Coffee Table

This was my first attempt at building my own furniture.  I knew nothing about how to do it, only that after I saw the plan for this coffee table, I knew I wanted it in my house. 

I didn't know if my husband would be on board or not... so... I just didn't tell him about it until it was finished.  That's not a healthy thing to do by the way (and I next to never do it.  I usually run all my projects by him first... he's a judge of what will work and what won't), but I wasn't in the healthiest place when I built this table so that should explain it.  It was about a month after my dad passed away, and coming to the end of my first trimester of pregnancy.  I was a tad irrational, and a little lot of crazy. :)

I enlisted my father-in-law to help me and let me use his tools. 
Best idea I made in this process.  He knew WAY more about building than I did, obviously.  If I had done it on my own it wouldn't have turned out this well.  He taught me about square building, impact drills, all the essentials for doing it RIGHT.
He's awesome.

I followed the plan from Ana White's site.  Have you been there?  Go!!  You will be lost for hours dreaming of all the things you can build.  I love how she makes even a beginner like me feel like I can build anything I want.

The original plan was for a rectangle, but I really wanted a square coffee table, so I just did a little math and changed the dimensions to fit my living room.

After the building was finished, I stained the top with Minwax Dark Walnut (to match my other furniture) and then painted the legs and sides with Behr Premium Plus in Antique White (which I bought way too much of for another project and have spent the last several months repainting pretty much everything in my house to use it up :) I'm the worst judge of how much paint I'll need for a project.)

After it was painted and stained I sanded the edges up a little bit on the legs and sides, then gently rubbed the stain all over the bottom, immediately wiping it away.  I wanted to take away the brightness of the white paint, but also have the edges soak up the dark.

I love how it turned out.  Love it!  Even if it has ended up much more of a toy table/race track for my kids than a beautiful coffee table, I still love having it in my house and knowing that my own two hands put it there.

Linked to: Savvy Southern Style