Making a table

Transitioning our basement family room from a play pit to a functional family room has been an interesting process. It is a room that has to be many types of spaces for our family. TV watching, playroom, hangout for teens, Lego land, schoolroom, crafting hub, and wrestling arena. I could go on. In the past the space was split in half with the back portion being the main location for the playroom. The front portion closest to the stairs has been the TV zone. As the children have aged we began to realize that having the room dominated by toys has been more of an impediment to the functionality of our family room. We have whittled away at the amount of toys for the girls, many of which have been sent to live a new life in their preschool. While we have much more to downsize we do still have the storage space to keep things out of the immediate way. The bigger problem was how to rearrange our space. I wanted and needed to eliminate some furniture and make the room more in line with our family's needs of enjoying sports together. We have begun to make football dinner nights a tradition. My need to have a space for the girls to eat their football delights was very high. I saw a design idea on the internet about a thin long table behind a couch in a family room sports den. That was the idea that inspired the change for furniture.

I showed the Mister my idea and explained that the table needed to be at least six feet long and that I would prefer it to be bar height. I wanted the table to be easy to move so that we could rearrange our family room easily. He ordered a live edge pine board and began to get to work on making the table.

First he spent time sanding the board until it was absolutely perfect. Next he filled in the cracks and other imperfections with resin. This resin will make for a uniform flat surface. This process took many days of drying sanding and repeating the process until the board was uniform. 

He found a stain and sealant to finish the wood. We agreed to use plumbing pipe for the legs. This was an easy way to make it sturdy and have a good place for feet to rest while sitting at the table. It ended up being a little taller than bar height but for us being a taller family that worked out better. He painted the pipes black with some spray paint. In the mean time we are waiting for all the paint and stain to dry thoroughly before bringing it inside.