Old Pine Dining Tables

My wife and I just bought a new house and for the first time ever we have a formal dining room. So we went and starting looking for the perfect dining room table. We looked at furniture stores in the Dallas area. All we found was cheap tables with a thin hardwood veneer. After a few months of looking on Craigslist and all over the internet, I did find a style of table I like. I love the look of a farm table, the only problem is they are several thousand dollars or made from cheap yellow pine. So I finally decided to take a plunge and build one myself.

Step 1: The Wood

I didn’t know what type of wood I wanted to use to build my table. I knew I wanted some character and I wanted the table to have a story behind it. I was looking on craigslistone day and came across a listing for some reclaimed longleaf pine. I called the number and asked about the wood. Turns out it was the floor boards from a train depot in Bowie Texas that was torn down. The building was built in the early 1870's. Long leaf pine is the hardest of all the pine species. This wood has a character you can’t find in lumber from a store. It was tight grained and was colored by over 100 years of use. I knew this wood needed to be used again and its story told. Even with its age and abuse it was still good and very usable.