UPDATED: DIY Kitchen Island w/Benches UNDER $100! Rustic Cottage meets Biergarten Pub

I honestly think my husband & I were carpenters in a past life. We are the type of people who love to get their hands dirty & create things. We enjoy customizing & designing things to suit our needs. Forget buying things - that's no fun for us (or our wallets), and it doesn't give you that same satisfaction or sense of accomplishment.

For 2 years my husband and I have been wanting to make our own kitchen island. Up until this venture, I had only dabbled in re-staining shelves, coffee/side tables, & nightstands. My husband  re-configured an old frig & turned it into a kegerator with custom taps. So this time around we wanted to take it a step further and build something from the bottom up.

Our inspiration was a combination of Rustic Cottage meets Biergarten Pub - if that makes any sense. We didn't want something fancy. We wanted the woodwork to express what kind of people we are - laid back, informal, simple, & beer lovers - nothing artificial. We also wanted the piece to bring light into the room because no one likes a dark, gloomy looking kitchen!

So once we determined our theme, we needed to figure out how to put this sucker together of course! You can't just slap some wood together and call it a table..well I guess you could, but your Biergarten table would probably end up falling apart on you, and that would be a disgrace to the Beer Gods. We looked at 2 or 3 tutorials online, but this one was the simplest >> http://www.lowes.com/creative-ideas/kitchen-and-dining/diy-dining-set/project .

I suggest looking at tutorials & coming up with your dimensional measurements first. This helps you determine what materials you need so that you don't end up walking around Home Depot aimlessly for 2 hours - shout-out to my fellow DIY'ers who know this feeling all too well ;)

BORING TECHNICAL STUFF

For reference, we bought the following pieces for the table: 

2 2X8 10 ft wood planks (Douglas Fir) $8.70 each (table top)

1 4X4 12 ft wood plank (Douglas Fir) $15.42 (legs)

2 2X4 10 ft wood planks (Douglas Fir) $4.36 each (underside support)

For the benches: 

2 2X8 8 ft wood planks (Douglas Fir) $8.70 each (table top)

2 4X4 8 ft wood plank (Douglas Fir) $10.52 each (legs)

1 2X4 16 ft wood planks (Douglas Fir) $7.05 (underside support)

Table dimensions:

Height: 34.5"

Length: 5'

Bench dimensions:

Height: 21.5"

Length: 4'

Difference between the bottom of the table and top of the bench, or as my husband would say >> "vertical leg room" - he so fancy: 8"

Make sure you pick the best wood pieces - this is not something to overlook! Yes, unfortunately it means you are going to have to sift through plank after plank after plank to find the ones that aren't all banged up, scratched, split, & crooked. Otherwise you will have yourself wobbly, uneven table that is so utterly scratched that it is no longer considered "rustic-looking". Not to mention you will have the wobbliest benches for you & your guests to sit on - we all know how utterly annoying that is!!

So if you're like us & don't own the fancy power tools to carry out this DIY, don't fret! We had Home Depot cut all of our wood planks to the specific lengths we wanted. This saved us time and our sanity. Power saw = AMAZINGLY ACCURATE vs. hand saw = UNEVEN FRUSTRATION!! 

 Other tips:

Table underside support

 Sand each individual piece before assembling it together. Start by putting together the underside support first. Use wood glue in combination with screw fastners & make pilot holes! 

Bench underside support

Bench L-Supports

 Try to avoid drilling screws in and near knots to avoid the wood from splitting. Make sure knots ARE visible so that it adds character to the table. Stand the legs up before attaching them to determine if they stand straight without wobbling. 

Now on to my favorite part - staining! We used the following:

 

*Before stain on the left / After 2 coats of stain on the right*

Before:

Choose a stain or paint that accentuates your theme. We selected an oil stain because of the way it subtly saturated the natural coloring of the wood.We also used a satin-finish polyurethane to not only protect the wood from inevitable food & drink stains, but to also saturate the color a step further.

Only Oil Stain:

With Oil Stain AND Polyurethane:

 Can you see how much more vibrant the stain shines through with the help of the polyurethane?? Insanely beautiful! The color goes from dull to perfection. LOVE!

Close-ups:

I also have a tutorial on the Orchid centerpiece I chose as the finishing touch for this project - Super easy & ridiculously inexpensive. Link here >> DIY Orchid UNDER $10!

This project took only 1 WEEK to complete and COST NO MORE THAN $100! That may sound like a lot, but to put this into perspective: 4 years ago, we bought the cheapest dining room table from K-Mart & that cost us over $200 -_- No particle board or fake looking epoxy here - just real, sturdy, heavy duty wood. Take that Ikea! And did I mention that my kitchen now smells like a forest without the help of an overpriced Bath & Body works candle? ;)

xx,

Jessica