|
From ladiesagainstfeminism.com Homemaking and Other Practical Topics The world we live in seems more and more to be designed for families of four (or less!). This is no more apparent than when a family with more than the average goes shopping for a dinner table. The majority of tables out there in the "affordable" range are round and seat four. Sometimes you can find an oval one that seats six--if you are willing to spend more money. When you get to the high-end tables for people who do a lot of entertaining in their formal dining rooms, there are oblong tables seating eight or ten, but you are going to pay quite a sum for those! What's a larger family to do?  Having what I would consider a moderately sized family with seven persons regularily around our dinner table, we used an old hand-me-down, folding-leaf table in our dining room for many years. It served us well, until we became addicted to hospitality. The Bible says we are to be given to hospitality, but what I have found is that after you give yourself to it, hospitality can quickly become an addiction. It's fun! It's exciting! However, it is also a bit difficult to squeeze an extra family around a small table, especially when they are also a moderately sized family or larger! We did not like the idea of "banishing" the children to the coffee table when guests were over, either, as we value eating together, and so we sought the Lord for wisdom. Our solution, finally, after much shopping around, was to build our own table. Now, I need to tell you that my husband and I are hardly carpenters, and furniture making is neither a hobby nor a perfected skill that we possess. We basically winged it. We made some mistakes that we had to correct along the way, but you live and learn. We take the attitude of Thomas Edison, who insisted he had not failed over 10,000 times to make a light bulb; rather, he said, "I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work!" If anything, my husband and I mutually have very little fear of failure, so we often attempt things like this, sometimes with success, sometimes not. Our table design is fairly simple to do and would work for just about anyone with some basic carpentry know-how (such as if you know how to saw wood and screw things in). We used some 2 x 4's to assemble two bases for either end of the table. These were just like simple frames that the table rested on. We tried to make them non-wobbly. Basically, these look like frames for a box, with a few diagonally attached cross beams to keep it from wobbling. If we were to re-do this table, we would have made the base slightly smaller, so that those seated at the table would have enough leg-room. Right now it is functional, but a bit tight. We attached a 4 foot by 8 foot piece of 1-inch thick plywood to the top of the bases. In case we ever moved and wanted to take the table with us, we made the table top removable. We attached it using metal corner brackets. We bought the super-heavy-duty variety. We purchased 1-inch thick plywood, because we planned to put tile on it, and we wanted something that would not flex and be very sturdy. You can use any thick plywood or MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) for this project. At this point, we tiled the table, but just as easily you could sand and paint the table top or cover it with a specially made table cloth. Many fabric stores sell fabrics that would work well for a table cloth, and some sell flannel-backed vinyl by the yard. I painted on a primer that is designed for preparing surfaces for ceramic tile. This was found in the tile aisle of a home-improvement store. Later, after it cured, I started by putting some corner tile and edging tile down. I put the corners on first, forming a bullnose edge. Then, starting in the very center of each side, I put the bullnose edge tiles all around the perimeter. I glued all of these edge tiles in place using a glue called Liquid Nails. After those dried, I began to lay out the tiles without gluing them down, until I had created a pattern I liked.  Detail of tile on the table. My children had great fun helping me with this part of the project! We played around with different designs with tile, laying them all out on the table top, rearranging them and doing different things until we acheived the look we were after. I used broken pieces of tiles I had been collecting from garage sales and "curbside specials" and did a sort of mosaic on the table's surface. I laid out the larger pieces in the center first, then spread to the edges, trying to keep the pattern balanced. Using tubes of Liquid Nails in caulking guns, my oldest daughter and I began the painstaking task of gluing down all of the tile, one tile at a time. After the glue was set and had cured over a few days (according to package directions), it was time to grout the tiles. This is one area where I messed up! The people at the hardware store talked me out of buying the sanded grout, which would have to be sealed. I had worked with it before, and I know it goes down nicely, but they convinced me I needed a pre-sealed grout. The Pre-sealed grout was a mess to work with and did not lie right on the table. Every time it became too hot in the house, this grout expanded and looked awful. What was worse, the so-called "sealed" grout also developed mildew and stained easily. The sanded grout I used in other projects never did that! Be sure to buy the sanded grout, as it is much easier to work with and looks better. Sealer for the grout is generally sold in the same area of your local home improvement store. It is expensive, but a little goes a long way. After we realized the mistake with the grout, we began the painstaking task of removing the grout with a Dremel, but soon gave up in frustration. This "presealed" grout doesn't even Dremel out well! We lived with the wrong grout for a year, with a clear vinyl tablecloth over the top to keep it clean. As our homeschooling year came to a close this past June, with the help of some goggled children, I took a chisel and hammer, removed the tiles, soaked them to remove grout, and sanded the table. Later, I laid out the tile again, in a different design than before, and used the correct grout for the job. Because the pattern was eclectic, with broken tiles and bits of broken dishes, too, we did not have to be too careful with the tiles as we removed them. If anything, the additional breaks in the tiles enhanced the look! Our table is finished off with a few benches we found at garage sales, then stripped, sanded, and painted. We also found some dining room chairs. We stripped and painted the wood for the chairs and the benches to be all the same color. Though the chairs do not match in style exactly, it looks like a nice, eclectic set, matching in color. Around our table, we have had as many as 18 adults and children at once!  The finished table! As the saying goes, "necessity is the mother of invention." If you need a dining room table to better suit your needs but haven't had much luck at the garage sales, try your hand at making one! You'll be glad you did. © Copyright 2002-2009 by LAF/BeautifulWomanhood.org
|
