DIY Barnboard Console Table Project

Like others, my husband and I love a good diy project. They are a learning curve and rarely happen without glitches. But you work through them, find solutions, and end up with something to show and be proud of! Something like this DIY Barnboard table!

Doing a renovation project together can be a good relationship test. Some people figure out how to work together, and others find their breaking points. You each have strengths that add to the project. Sometimes those strengths may include repeatedly stating your approach to a problem in a louder and louder voice. Other times, it’s being patient and letting a problem be worked out the hard way. Bonus advice: projects rarely happen without a hitch.

Table Talk

We started refinishing furniture when we got our first place together and inherited some wood tables. They were built strong, but the color was not to our taste. We did some research, got a crash course in power tools, and set to work. In the end, we were sore, proud, and had a great dining table, coffee table, and stacking end tables to furnish our home with.

Of course, that was just the start of it.

We enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment that came with finishing those tables and the pride of putting our own sweat and blood into it. With that project under our belt, we realized that we didn’t have to buy brand new furniture, we were kinda good at this refinishing thing. So DIY projects became our team-building projects. And we’ve had a few good ones over the years.

We love this distressed console table project!

 

The Console Table

The setup for our new rumpus room has the sectional floating in the room. There was nowhere to set drinks or snacks (out of the dog’s reach). Leftover boxes and totes from when we moved just got stacked up behind the couch instead of being put away. We had tried to find something suitable but knew the best way to get what we wanted, at the price we wanted, was to build it ourselves.

My husband came up with the brilliant idea to re-purpose some plant stands from our wedding as table legs. They were the perfect height, and we had used them for a temporary set up around the sectional already. The problem was that their surface space is small and uneven. Not ideal for a glass of wine. This was the starting point for our project.

Supplies

The next stop was the lumber yard. I knew we needed a tabletop that would span the 9-foot length of the couch. I was fully expecting to need to piece together 2×4’s when I found a plank of pine in the perfect size. And it fit our budget! We already had two 2×4 boards at home so we pieced those together for the bottom shelf. And after digging around we found leftover stair spindles to use as the middle supporting legs! Seriously, our budget was minimal for this project!

So our list of supplies for the project included:

• Tables Legs, ends, and middle
• Tabletop
• Lower Shelf Boards
• L-Brackets for leg anchors
• Flat brackets
• Screws
• Drill
• Measuring Tape
• Pencil
• Level
• Electric Sander
• Sandpaper
• Sawhorses
• Saw
• Stain
• Paint
• Varathane
• Brushes
• Rags

Since we needed our boards to be really long, there was no cutting and trimming involved, but we did have to cut down the stair spindles to match the height of the plant stands we were using.

Table Distressing Process

Prep

Prepping is so important to get a good finish. We gave all the wood a good sanding on all sides. Then we used damp rags to clean the sawdust off of them. We wiped them twice to ensure they were clean.

Stain

Next step was to stain the wood. We laid all the wood across our sawhorses so they could be done simultaneously. Tip: when painting and staining, it’s a good idea for only one person to be doing this job. Everyone uses slightly different pressure and techniques when working, and this eliminates having a surface with two different looks. This goes for painting too; it’s good to have one person do the cutting in, and another to do the rolling or at least do different walls.

Distress

For this look, I dipped a rag in the stain and applied it to the boards. Sand after the stain dries. Then you can add an extra layer of stain if you want it darker. Then sand again. It helps keep the tabletop smooth instead of the grain starting to rise and feel gritty. Once dry, I painted over the wood in a distressed paint technique to make it look like barnboard. Once the paint was also dry, I used a clear varathane to seal it.

Since I was already elbow deep in stain, I went ahead and made matching shelves! You can check them out in this post about styling shelves.

 

Table Building Process

Plan

When everything was dry, it was time to put it all together! Bring on the power tools! After determining which side of the board was going to be the top, we laid it bottom up. We planned out how we were going to put the table together to prevent unnecessary holes.

Build

Finally, we get to the good part and can put it all together! We measured and marked where the plant stand legs were going to go. The plant stands were then screwed into the bottom of the tabletop.

Since we wanted a bottom shelf too, we made this next. Using flat bar brackets we pre-drilled then attached the two 2×4’s together. We placed a bracket at regular lengths on the board so that it had even support all the way down.

We left the bottom shelf on the sawhorse top-down and maneuvered the table over it. This way we just had to pre-drill holes through the plant stand into the wood then screw it into place.

The next step was to flip the current table upright so we could add the middle leg supports. At first, we were planning on putting two legs on the back of the table and two legs on the front. We realized that the front two legs may look too bulky and weren’t actually needed for the amount of weight the table would support. In the end though we skipped the front legs. So now there are two distressed stair spindles/table legs ready and waiting for another project to come along. We marked the leg positions on the table and attached L-brackets to the table at those spots. The legs were then secured to the L-brackets.

Admire

And voila! The DIY barnboard table is complete! What do you think?

It really is the perfect height for our sectional, and the full length makes it so functional! I am glad we added the extra shelf on the bottom too.

Has this inspired you to tackle a DIY project of your own? I’d love to hear about it! Subscribe to my email if you want to be sent even more decorating and DIY ideas!