I was rather annoyed in one particular cafe and thought, I could make better than this with half the resources. Target set, as a side note this was my first ever project involving wood, ever.
Armed with a standard hand saw and some sandpaper (my workshop equipment has drastically improved now) but hey we all start somewhere i had to work out how the hell to achieve this. Saw some pallets outside a shop that got me thinking. Same time next week spotted the same pallets. Politely asked the staff if it was being used, Nope they were more then willing to have them taken from their premises.
Back home in the back garden I drew out a basic design for how i wanted the table to look, I'm a fan of rustic pieces and soon realised after sanding a few test spots the pallet boards were all different colours and widths. Perfect.
Disassembled the pallets which is a lot tougher than it looks without other tools. Borrowed a chisel to help pry the boards apart.
Measured out how tall i wanted the table and how i was going to make the top.
I bought a small sheet of plywood to use as a base for my planks on top to sit on,
Then measuring the lengths of the boards on top i proceeded to hand cut every piece to the required lengths. The sanding afterwards i started by hand but gave up quickly as the pallet wood was coated in dirt. Nipped to B&Q and bought a standard and looking back rather useless sheet sander. I was away.
Once finished sanding I selected my favourite boards, different colours for the tops. Then using wood glue I pressed them into place on top of my plywood base. After drying i used some remaining boards to create a border around the table top planks. I did not want the table to be uniform and completely even, roughly and rustic was the aim so the detail work was minimal after the initial sanding.
I then attached the legs drilling though them on the inside to the frame of the table top at several different angles for strength. I had this wonderful looking table but it wasn't there yet.
After a restless nights thought i decided for it to be a suitable cafe table i needed it waterproof and heat resistant and able to be wiped clean. the table top boards were varnished with a clear water based varnish, I allowed varnish to seep into the small gaps between boards so dust etc getting into them at a later date wouldn't be an issue.
Then around the border and legs I proceeded to apply a polyurethane stained varnish. Giving me the result shown!
I loved this table. I stuck it on ebay just to see if there was interest for it! Was contacted by a new cafe owner in birmingham asking me if i could make 14 of them for his new cafe.
Sadly he expected them all at £10 a table so I never took the commission.
Just goes to show though that Rustic Beauty is easily achievable with the most basic of skills that i had then and with the most basic tools.
Cost of Project £32
Pallets x 2 Free
Both varnishes together £12
Sandpaper £15
Plywood sheet £5
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