Barn Table

With our third kid on the way our dinning room table was getting smaller and smaller, we needed a bigger one. We wanted something that would last, be sturdy and have the look we wanted. We decided to go with a barn wood table that we could easily keep sanding and refinish as need be over time. Plus it would definitely be sturdy enough for our boys. Barn wood is full of knots and knowing how much our kids spill we decided to take care of them and fill them with epoxy. First we taped off the knot and underneath as well if needed so the glue wouldn’t just leak through.

After taping we had our clear epoxy, a small jar to mix it thoroughly and a syringe to squeeze it into our knots. After taping up all the spots we wanted done with went to work and carefully filled the holes with epoxy. One of the larger knots kinda stayed a whitish color and never turned clear. I’m not sure if it was too big and maybe it would have worked better if we applied the epoxy in small increments. We tried poking it with a pin as it dried to let the air bubbles out but it never turned clear. We could always dig it out and try again, but for now it is what it is.

After the epoxy dried we tried some stain colors on a scrap board and asked the kids which color they liked. We wanted something dark but would also show some of the grain texture through. The beauty part of working with wood is if you don’t like it or get sick of it, just sand it down and refinish it again. We then put on about 3 coats of a satin polyurethane. I think I’ve mention this in posts before but when working with a Satin you should gently stir it every 10 minutes or so because the dulling agents fall to the bottom quickly or otherwise you’ll end up with a high-gloss finish.

We were really happy with the final product and so far it’s been awesome being able to eat dinner without our kids being able to accidentally kick us or reach onto our plates. We’ve also been collecting old farm chairs that we’ve been painting or refinishing to use as our seating around the table…still waiting to find a couple more.