DIY fringed burlap table runner

i wanted to make a burlap table runner to go with the farm table wedding gift and found a fantastic tutorial HERE.

total cost - FOUR DOLLARS!!!! and that made TWO table runners!

i scored my burlap for two bucks a yard, already had the thread - so i was set. it was a breeze to make, the longest part being the pinning and the ironing.

i started with washing the burlap, and this part made me nervous. i have heard horror stories when washing burlap, but you just have to wash it - the stuff doesn't smell so great. i had a bundle of two yards with the edges sewn to prevent unraveling, and threw it in the wash with some laundry detergent and baking soda.
i patiently waited.
when the wash ended, i prayed for a good outcome before opening my door, and when i did, it was all still in one piece. there was LOTS of hair-like balls in my dryer and all over the fabric, but nothing a good outdoor shaking wouldn't take away! i let the fabric hang dry overnight then folded it up for the next day of sewing.

there is a trick to cutting a straight line in burlap, and this helped me tremendously! you take a string from the end and pull and ruffle, pulling the entire string out of the fabric. when this string is out, it creates a space, leaving you with the perfect cutting line!

see that line?! perfectly straight!
i cut and ironed the fabric flat, then i double hemmed the edges and sewed to make the runner.

now onto making the fringe. there are lots of strings hanging off burlap, allowing it to unravel. i grabbed one string at a time and pulled it out, making the fringe. patience is virtue here, folks... there are lots of strings to pull. and however long you want your fringe to be, that's how many strings you will be pulling out!

 and here is what you will be left with when your fringe is as long as you would like -

then i just separated the strings into groupings of five or six and tied them in double knots.

 and then you have this!

it turned out great and looked amazing on the new farm table!

not bad for a two dollar table runner!

DIY farmhouse bench

i wanted to post our building process of the bench that went with our farm table, so here it is -

HERE is the plans we used, again changing the measurements to fit our six foot table.

after building the table, the bench was a breeze. we notched the boards out in the beginning and used one as a guide for our stain color. we also cut all the other boards and sanded them all.

then we put the legs together and attached the frame and supports-

we drilled pocket holes on the inner side boards to anchor the bench top - and it was solid as a rock. and i also had a happy hubby - he pretty much did this entire bench in less than 3 hours (with a few breaks!).

easy as pie after building a six foot table the exact same way :)

DIY farmhouse table and bench {FINISHED!!!!}

after many hours of work (major work), i can finalllllllly show you all the finished table and bench - and i am beyond excited!

i will start with a list of all the tools and products we used to build everything -
miter saw
circular saw
belt sander
palm sander
dremel (used to sand notches and distress edges of wood)
hand planer
tape measure
square
pencil
chisel
hammer
kreg jig mini pocket hole kit
pocket screws
LOTS of sandpaper (100 and 220 grit)
minwax english chestnut stain
minwax gloss polyurethane
minwax satin poyurethane
and lots of wood

now i will tell you the most surprising part of this entire process - and why all of my reveal photos are taken with the table and bench still on my porch and not in my dining room....

all those hours of work put into building this - all the sweat and bug spray and physical exhaustion...

THIS TABLE IS NOT OURS TO KEEP!

we decided that we would build this as a wedding gift to very dear friends! they have done so very much for us and have been wanting a dining room table - so they are getting just that! we have been sending them photos along the process and they are SO excited to finally have this table in their home!
the bottom stretcher of the table has a very special message on the underside. using our dremel tool, we engraved their name and the year as a 'little something special' for them to always have.

we are currently in the process of building our own table, so when it is finished, i will share that one as well!

and the finished table and bench -

i'm telling ya - this tabletop is so smooth! and after 4 coats of poly, it better have been!

the handmade burlap fringed table runner looks amazing on the new table, and this was also part of the gift! (blog post on that soon!)

so there you have it! the restoration farmhouse table built for less than 200 bucks! we are more than excited to have made this and can't wait to have our own. needless to say, our friends were beyond excited and it looks amazing in their dining room!

DIY farmhouse table - part two

{sorry that part two has taken me so long to post :(  right now 95 percent of my time is being spent in west virginia with my family for certain reasons -but i will get the finished product up here as soon as possible. thanks for all the calls, texts and emails... means the world.}


here is where the hard part began... the top and finishing.
yes, cutting the wood to the exact measurements can be nerve racking, but staining the table is the final straw. we chose to use english chestnut by minwax and started with the base of the table.

then we put together the table top. we went with 2x10 and 2x12 planks, using two of each. we used the kreg jig to attach the boards together on the underside of the tabletop.

the table top wasn't perfectly even - and i wanted it to be smooth enough to slide a plate across! david went and bought a hand planer and used that to even out all the top boards. it did exactly the job we needed - and after completely wearing our arms out our table was perfectly smooth! we cut the breadboard ends and attached those to complete the tabletop.

table DONE! atleast the building part...

here is what we did with EVERY SINGLE BOARD to prepare the stain.
when the wood was cut to it's measurement we would sand with 100 grit sandpaper using a belt sander.
then i would sand again with my palm sander using 220 grit sandpaper. this gives a super smooth finish.
then you stain.
then you sand again with 220.
then you stain.
EVERY. SINGLE. BOARD. (and there are a lot of boards!)

we put the tabletop on saw horses to stain -

so the tabletop was sanded and stained and sanded and stained - and then it was finished! (even though we still have a boatload to do...)

and there she is sitting out in the sun to dry. the stain seriously soaked into the wood and ended up being much more on the mahogany side than we expected. we are doing two coats of gloss poly then finishing with two more coats of satin poly, so that will also make the color change a bit.

until next time :)

DIY farmhouse table - part one

i can't belive i am actually blogging this... a DIY FARMHOUSE TABLE!!!!

for mannnnny months i have been dying to get started on a farm table. we have bookmarked a billion blog postings showing the different steps of how people made their own, and finally it was time to make our own.

we went off these two plans to create our own version. all measurements had to be adjusted to create a six foot table.

tommy and ellie's farmhouse table
ana white farmhouse table

we did not want to use two 2x4's put together for the table legs so we chose to go with 4x4's like tommy and ellie. plus we wanted to make our table as close as possible to the original restoration hardware farmhouse table.
finding untreated 4x4's was quite the nightmare. we finally ended up choosing cedar which was muuuuuch more expensive than the regular untreated lumber, but this was going to be a long lasting piece of quality furniture, so well worth the extra money. after borrowing a friends truck and hauling all the lumber home, we started the building process!

first step - the notches.
this. took. FOREVER.
david cut the four legs and the side stretcher that connected them. there would be a total of ten notches. it was the most time consuming part but had to be done. with a circular saw he made about 20 small cuts where the notch would be. we used a chisel to remove the wood that had been cut then sanded the bottom of the notch smooth using a sanding bit on our dremel.

when the notches on the legs were finished we pieced them together to make sure everything was level.

so the legs and bottom of the frame were nearly finished - we just had to make one more notch on each center stretcher -

finally all the notches were finished. next we cut the 2x4's to frame the top of the table base. when everything was cut it was time to make the pocket holes. the point of pocket holes is so all the screws would be hidden. we purchased a kreg jig mini kit and it was by far the best investment we used for this project. again, making all the holes was a long task, but well worth the time.

once all the holes were drilled we had to sand everything. thankfully we own a belt sander and a palm sander so we each got to work on the boards and cut the sanding time in half.

doesn't he just look adorable in his mask :-)
once all the boards were nice and smooth we screwed everything in place. we built the entire table base in one day and it fit perfectly together!!!!

and the finished table base - all put together and sturdy as can be! we are so proud!!!!

stay tuned for part two! we still have a TON of work to do - like putting together the table top, more sanding then staining and finishing the table. and also we are building the farmhouse bench to match.

until next time...