Project Information
I've been wanting to do this project for a while now. I only had a tiny little bistro set for my patio, which I carried with me from my apartment. This just wasn't cutting it when I had 4 or 5 friends over for a bbq!
I saw the plans for a "simple patio table" on woodgears.ca a few years ago, and thought that might be a solution to my problem! Then I saw the "reader submitted" photos and decided I was going to build something along those lines.
The table is about 7 foot by 3 foot, so it should have plenty of room to seat three people on each side, and one at each end if necessary.
The bottom frame is made from 2X4 studs that I planed down to make them "pretty". The legs are two 2X4s planed and laminated together (so they fight each other instead of warping). I coated the whole bottom frame with two coats of solid hide stain. I coated the bottoms of the legs with marine epoxy in an attempt to keep the rot at bay.
The table top is 5/4 cedar decking. I put two coats of semi-gloss spar varnish on the bottom, and four coats on the top. If I were doing it again, I might have used satin spar varnish, since the table top is very very shiny. I figure it'll probably lose some lustre with a little exposure to weather. It is attached to the frame using a whole crapload of pocket screws. That way there are no depressions in the table top to catch water. Also, I hadn't used the pocket hole jig in a while
All in all, I'm very pleased with the result. Honestly, the pictures don't do it justice, but that's got nothing to do with my skill, and everything to do with how gorgeous cedar can be when its varnished!
I saw the plans for a "simple patio table" on woodgears.ca a few years ago, and thought that might be a solution to my problem! Then I saw the "reader submitted" photos and decided I was going to build something along those lines.
The table is about 7 foot by 3 foot, so it should have plenty of room to seat three people on each side, and one at each end if necessary.
The bottom frame is made from 2X4 studs that I planed down to make them "pretty". The legs are two 2X4s planed and laminated together (so they fight each other instead of warping). I coated the whole bottom frame with two coats of solid hide stain. I coated the bottoms of the legs with marine epoxy in an attempt to keep the rot at bay.
The table top is 5/4 cedar decking. I put two coats of semi-gloss spar varnish on the bottom, and four coats on the top. If I were doing it again, I might have used satin spar varnish, since the table top is very very shiny. I figure it'll probably lose some lustre with a little exposure to weather. It is attached to the frame using a whole crapload of pocket screws. That way there are no depressions in the table top to catch water. Also, I hadn't used the pocket hole jig in a while
All in all, I'm very pleased with the result. Honestly, the pictures don't do it justice, but that's got nothing to do with my skill, and everything to do with how gorgeous cedar can be when its varnished!